


Cold Fusion On a Hot Planet

by mthorn78



Series: Space Trio [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Alien Culture, Aliens, Artificial Intelligence, Crew as Family, Cybernetics, Elves In Space, Environmentalism, Gen, Hostile Environment, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Power Armor, Science Fiction, Series, Space Marines, Space Opera, Wanderer Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:37:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8573329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mthorn78/pseuds/mthorn78
Summary: Independent space freighters are hired to travel to a hostile planet, whose temperature has risen to dangerous levels, to retrieve valuable energy research from a rival corporation.  The crew are forced to use powered armor to survive the planet's surface and penetrate the corporation's defenses.  But the planet is unstable and not entirely abandoned, and not all of the life on the planet is friendly.





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Woke up with a pounding headache and a pounding at my door.

Thump, thump, thump.  Thump, thump, thump.

Neither one was going away, so I lurched over to the door, leaned my head against the wall, and pressed the door panel, “Whaaaaaat?”

Knox was at the door standing perfectly straight.  Perfect.  Ulysses Knox was fucking perfect because someone grew him in a goddamn vat.  Must have been a small vat because he was three inches shorter than me.  That notwithstanding, he was an exemplar of physical human perfection.  “Grew up” out on the colonies; drafted right into the military.  Served out his time as a space marine.  Lived too.  Must have seen some shit out there, not that he mentions it.  After thirty-some-odd years they retire them.  Only want them in their prime; just like the rest of us.  I’ve seen the man kick ass as recently as yesterday, and I can’t imagine what his prime must have been like; more perfect than perfect.

Mr. Perfect stood there in silence waiting for me to lift my head, when I did, he started in, “Harlow needs you on the bridge.”

I squinted at the man.  He was looking a little fuzzy; I wasn’t really awake or sober. 

Harlow.  Madelyn Harlow.  Only last names for Knox, old military habit, the man wouldn’t know who Ulysses was if you asked him.  Harlow was just Maddie to me.  Another one; perfect.  Maddie was a fucking genius.  Bred that way.  “Made to order,” they call it; designer babies.  Her rich folks paid for her to be perfect mentally every way that Knox was physically.  They made a technical genius, just like they wanted.  Wanted some kind of shit, corporate career for her, but she took that custom-made brain of hers, and it put it to work hacking the corporations instead.  Disgraceful.

Ex-marine in the colonies, wonder kid in the core, and both of them ended up working for me.  Yeah, all right, it’s time for my spiel, I guess.  I’m Tane Maahu, just your average brown man with a lot of tattoos, well, tā moko, really, like real tribal tattoos from my heritage, not your fake bullshit.  Anyway, my parents just squeezed me out like normal folks with a mouth too big for my own good. 

Used to be a reporter for GWN in some other life, like they’d put my tattooed mug on the holos.  Investigation, writing, that was my thing.  Now it’s mostly drinking and being caught in an inadequacy sandwich between two perfect beings out in deep space.  That’s not what pays the bills, but it is how I spend most of my time.  And I still write these logs like I’m some kind of real journalist.  I’ve got a journal at any rate, just like your average teen girl.

What I really do is pilot this damn ship, the _Raven_ , a SN Mk. 971 _Midnight_ -class light freighter; one of Sendai-Nakamura’s finest.  Bought her used, of course, but she’s in top shape.  More than I can say for myself.  Knox is our gunner on the quad-cannon turret, and Maddie runs systems.  I’m not a great pilot, but I’m licensed, and I manage not to crash the damn thing, so I guess that’s good enough.  We pull odd jobs here and there across the galaxy, and having completed one last night, we should not be due for another for at least a few days.  Ship was in working order when last I checked, so there should be no reason in the galaxy for anyone to wake me up at this indecent hour.  If Knox wasn’t so goddamned perfect, I would have kicked his ass.

I gave him the best dirty look I could muster as I shoved past him.  I probably looked like a goddamn sloth.

Knox paid me the courtesy of keeping his mouth shut as I staggered down the corridor towards the bridge.

Bridge was dark except for the sickly glow of the monitors.  Maddie was hunched over the systems’ console like a gargoyle with her face two inches from the screen.  She was jacked into the GalactNet surfing data streams of whatever nonsense she was into.  And I mean jacked-in, cord from her neck right into the dash.  Kid scrolled just by thinking it.  Creeps me out.  She did not acknowledge my presence.

I looked around for, I don’t know, a birthday cake or something?  I didn’t see shit.  I just rubbed my eyes and stood there like a caveman.  I threw my hands up to the heavens expecting the space gods to appear to me and make me one with the cosmos.  Didn’t happen.  So I just scratched my ass and cleared my throat.

Scroll.  Scroll.  Scroll.  Kid didn’t even flinch.

I lurched over to the console, dragging my knuckles, and leaned around to look her in the face, “The fuck, Maddie!?  I’m here!”

Kid gave me the side-eye sharp as a vibroblade, and the temperature dropped thirty degrees, “You got a call on the comm; your very important friend.”  She held my gaze, “He insisted.”

When she was sure my balls had completely receded into my body, she looked away and back to the monitor.  Scroll.  Scroll.  Scroll.

I cleared my throat, rubbed my temples, and went to the main console.  The comms’ light was blinking.  I reluctantly pushed it and braced myself, “This better involve tits.”

He was amused and smiled that devil’s smile, “Oh, I’m afraid not, but I could send out for some.”

I scowled at the screen and shook my head, “Probably wouldn’t have to go far, am I right?”

He laughed, “Oh, no, I suppose not.”  That smile again.  Fucker was always happy.

Jareth Newton, CEO of Universal Enterprises Corporation, one of the only Anthean corporations in the galaxy.  Antheans are usually too busy star-gazing and having forest orgies to get into big business, but I guess Jareth was the exception.  Switched to corporate orgies instead.

He had the pointy ears, perfect hair, and otherworldly beauty all Antheans had, and he damn well knew it.  Another perfect son-of-a-bitch for me to deal with.

I straightened up in my chair, “Not the best time, Mr. Newton, why don’t you try back in a week?”  I reached for the comms’ button.

The fucker looked crushed, “Oh, but it can’t wait, Tane, I need you now.”  He sat up at his desk and steepled his hands in front of him.

My finger hovered over the button, and I screwed up my face at him.

He made that smile again, “It’s really quite urgent…and quite lucrative.”  He leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over his knee.  He hit me in my weak spot; my bank account.

I shook my hand over the button, “I’m not hearing numbers!”

He gave that musical, space elf laugh, “Don’t you want to know what the job is?”

I bobbed my head from side to side, “If I like the numbers I do.”

He leaned forward on his desk and intertwined his hands in front of him, “A million credits.”

I stared.  I brought my finger up to my face, stared at it, then put my arm down at my side, “G-go on.”

Devil smile.

He can fucking devil smile at me for eternity for a million fucking credits.

He smirked and danced his thin eyebrows, “Well, I knew you’d like that.  You’ll have to earn it though, Tane.  I’m asking a lot of you.  It’ll be worth it though, for both of us.”

Every word out of this guy’s mouth was a come-on.  Maybe he never left the orgy and just called me in the middle of it.

I gave a thin smile, “I’m still here.  So talk.”

He gave a broad smile and sat up, “I need you to get something for me, Tane.  Simple, really, I need some research and some samples, and bring them back here to my corporate headquarters; you know the way.”

I took a breath and crossed my arms, “Simple, but not simple, or I wouldn’t be earning those credits.”

He squinted in a delighted smile, “Of course not.  You see, it’s the particular research I want, and where you have to get it from that’s the problem.”

I nodded my head.

He got up from his desk and looked somewhere off-screen.  He was dressed at least, but that didn’t rule out the orgy.  Sunlight bathed him, and he stood soaking it in, probably from the big windows in his penthouse.  He turned back to the screen, laying one hand delicately on his desk, “It doesn’t really belong to me, you see.  Not that you have to steal it exactly, just claim it.  It’s been abandoned, you see?  It’s just sitting there, and right now it doesn’t belong to anyone, but I want it to belong to me.”  He bent over the screen smiling and showing his perfect teeth.

I raised one eyebrow, “Where is it then?  And what is it?  And how did it come to be in this state of belonging and not belonging to anybody at this particular moment?”

He fell back into this chair and laughed, “Oh, Tane, you do have a way with words, don’t you?”  He pressed a button on his desk, and a holo projection of a planet appeared in front of him, “It’s in the Glovruna system; Glovruna Nine to be precise.”

I turned over my shoulder to Maddie and noticed Knox standing silently at attention behind her.

Maddie made an exaggerated gesture raising one finger in the air and dive bombing it down to a button on her console.  The planet’s information appeared on one of the readout screens in front of me.

Newton rotated the holo model in front of him and pointed to it, “There’s an abandoned research station there not far from the main spaceport.  It used to belong to Panstellar Innovations, but they had to leave suddenly, and as I said, now it belongs to no one.”

I scrolled through the data on my screen.  I stopped and leveled a stare at Newton, “It’s a class five hazard!”

Newton gave an innocent shrug.

My mouth hung open, and I grimaced.  My head hurt.  This was fucking crazy.  But then I thought about those credits…a million fucking credits, but class five...I looked up at him, “If we step one foot on that planet, we’ll incinerate ourselves!  I can’t spend a million credits dead!”

Newton turned away and looked at me from the corner of his eye, “You’ll need protective suits, of course, and it will be dangerous, but not impossible.”

I stood up from the console and crossed my arms over my chest.  I paced, “I assume this is why Panstellar had to leave?  Because the fucking planet was on fire?”

Newton considered, “They may have caused a slight imbalance in the local ecosystem resulting in catastrophic results, but that’s Panstellar’s loss, and I intend to gain from it.  They abandoned that research, and I can have it, if I’m willing to get it.”

I stopped and frowned at him, “You mean if I’m willing to get it.”

“Us,” Knox said behind me.

I turned and gave him a glare, then turned back to Newton.

Newton studied me, “A million credits doesn’t make you willing?”

I pursed my lips and held up a finger, “It might!  It might, if, if I’m not transporting some sort of super weapon or killer disease or some horrific xeno!”  I pointed the finger at him.

Newton leaned back and placed a delicate hand on his chest, “Why, of course not, Tane, you know I’m not in that sort of business.  And have I ever been less than forthright with you?”

I dropped my finger and cocked my head back and forth, “Not that I know of…so what is it?  What’s worth all this trouble to you?”

Newton gave a satisfied smile and folded his hands again, “Fuel refinement, Tane.  Nothing more.  But it’s a novel fusion method with a potentially lucrative new fuel source.  I need their science, Tane, the work they did to develop it, and the fuel samples.  It’s all there in the lab, they didn’t have time to take it.  You bring it to me, the logs, the data, and a few boxes of the material, and that’s it.  I’ll make something of that technology and make you a rich man too.”

I rubbed the stubble on my chin, “I feel like you’re gonna get a lot richer though.”

He gave the devil’s smile again, “Rich is rich, Tane.”

I nodded and stroked my chin, “It is at that.”  I pulled my hand from my chin and held one finger up, “Okay, we’ll do it.  Give me a few days to get my ship in order, get my supplies, and we’ll be out there within the week.  Half the credits up front, and half on delivery.”

Newton tightened his jaw, sat up straight, and made little fists on his desk, “Tane…oh, no, it doesn’t work that way.  You can’t spend that money if you’re dead, and why should I pay it?  Let’s be honest, there’s a chance you’re not coming back, and well, I don’t like be so reckless with my money, Tane.  I’ll pay the money in full on delivery.  You get me what I need, and I’ll be true to you, Tane.  You know I will.”

I shrugged and held my hands up, “I understand, Mr. Newton, it’s a lot of money, and fair is fair, but we always work with money up front, and this job is going to have expenses, fuel, damage to my ship and crew, we’re talking hazard pay, we’re talking specialized tech. I front that all out of pocket?”

Newton smiled, the devil’s fucking smile again, “You’re right, Tane.  Fair is fair.  I’ll forward ten-thousand to your account, that should cover expenses and put your mind at ease?”

I looked up to the ceiling and tapped a finger on my lip, “I was thinking a hundred.”

Musical laugh, “Oh, Tane, one-hundred?  And what?  Disappear into deep space with it?  We know each other too well for these games.” 

I gave him a serious look, “Then you should stop playing them.  The gear I need is gonna cost at least thirty-thousand, and that leaves me nothing for any of my other expenses, so what’s it gonna be?”

He tapped a few keys in front of him, “It’s done, fifty-thousand.”

I turned to Maddie.

She looked over her console and gave a series of short nods.

I shrugged and turned back to Newton.

He eyed me seriously, “And Tane, I can’t wait a few days or a week for this, I need it now, right away.  You need to leave today.  Get whatever you need and just go.  We’ve got a small window where we can pull this off, and once it closes…well, there goes rich for both us.  Am I clear?”

I let out a pained breath and put my hands on my head, “Yeah, all right, I get it.  Today.  Okay.  Well, I got the data here, and we’ve got the money, so I guess we better get to work.”

He clapped his hands together in front of him, “Excellent, Tane.  I knew I could count on you.  I look forward to seeing you soon.”

I nodded and gave a weak smile, “Mmm hmm, thank you, Mr. Newton, see you soon.”  I killed the comm.

I stood there in the silence rubbing my face and wondering what I’d gotten myself into.

“A million credits?”  Maddie sat up from her console and leaned with her palms on her thighs, “Like for real a million credits?  That guy is serious?”

I held my hands up, “I guess so.  Guy’s never screwed us before.”

Knox snorted, “They never do until they do.”

I considered that.

Maddie spun in her chair, “But if it’s for real then, that’s it.  We’re done, right?  We could just retire on that and do whatever.”

I leveled a glare at her, “You’re too young to think about retirement.”

She scoffed and flinched backwards, “Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I wanna work.  I don’t want to get old chasing credits if I don’t have to.  Sounds good to me.”

Knox narrowed his eyes, “It sounds extremely dangerous.  Class five.  And it’s probably worse than that.  He’s downplaying it.  We should have discussed this.  We still have to earn that million credits.”

I waved him off, “There’s no way I could say no to it, come on?”

Maddie spread her hands and shook her head, “Of course not.”  She gave an evil grin and rubbed her hands together in front of her, “Oh, man, I’m gonna buy all the things with my share.  Literally, all the things.  Select all, add to cart, confirm.”

Knox crossed the bridge to the pilot’s console and leaned over it.  He scrolled through the readout, “It doesn’t say anything about defenses.”

I joined him, “Newton said it was abandoned.”

Knox glared at me, “He said.  And abandoned doesn’t mean defenseless.  If this technology was worth so many credits, then they must have known that.  They wouldn’t leave the facility undefended.”

I looked at the report, “From what it says here, I’d imagine any defenses were fried when the planet went nova.  Fire storms, lava, molten metal flying everywhere, the planet’s surface temperature tripling overnight.  I’m surprised the buildings are still standing.”

Knox scrolled down and pointed to the screen, “Look at the plans here and the construction information, there’s a reason it’s still standing, this facility is blast resistant; it’s meant to contain a massive explosion.  The work they were doing there was volatile.  This place is a bunker.”

I nodded, “Well, obviously, it damn near blew the planet up, but it is what it is now.  It’s a big, hot ball of credits waiting for us to put on our gloves and pick it up.”

Knox locked eyes with me, “We’re going to need more than gloves to go down there.”

I gestured wildly in the air, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll get it.”

I walked around Maddie’s console, and leaned down to her.  I spun around her chair to face me, “You wanna go shopping?  Well, you’ve got fifty-thousand credits to spend.  Look over the specs, and get us the gear we need to get the job done, and get it here tonight!”  I spun her back to the console.

She eagerly scrolled through.

Knox came and stood in front of me, “We need a plan to get this done.”

I poked him in the center of his perfect, muscled chest, “Then you…come…up…with one.”  I punctuated with a series of pokes.  Then I walked past him down the corridor.

Knox called after me, “And where are you going?”

I held up a finger as I walked away, “I…need a drink.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

We flew out of Siros Station and jumped to ghost space.  Say what you will about S-N, but they put a hell of a ghost drive in this model.  It’s powerful and fast, but takes tremendous amounts of power, so it eats up fuel fast.  I was thinking about what Newton said about a new fusion source; could change things for the better.  He better give us a fucking discount on the new drive.

We made great time, and dropped back into real space in the Glovruna system; kind of isolated and not much out there.  Most of the planets are uninhabitable, and I guess Glovruna Nine just joined that list too.  I had Maddie plot a course for us, and I took over at the helm using the sublight drives. 

Took us a few hours to cross the system to Glovruna Nine.  When we finally reached her orbit, it was quite a sight.  The whole planet was on fire.  It was lit up red and glowing with a hazy aura around it.  I could see the heat leeching off the planet into space.  Staring at it made me sweat.  I was gonna go down there?  The thing was practically a sun!

I cracked my knuckles and settled into my chair, “Maddie, give me shields and a tight scan of the target zone.”

She did her work silently through her machine interface, “Got it…on screen.”

I got the results of her scans on my readout screen.  Hot as hell down there.  Literally.  The place was a mess, structures were still standing, but the terrain was uneven and bursting with heat geysers, molten metal, and lava.  If they had a landing pad, it was gone.  Looking at the plans from Newton showed how little they matched the current state of things.  That river of molten metal was new.

I studied the scan and the map, “I don’t see anywhere to land us.”

Maddie peeked over her console behind me, “What about the spaceport?  Think it’s still functional?”

I grimaced and looked back to the map, “Hmmm, I doubt it, and it’s too far anyway.  We can’t cover that much terrain on foot.”

Knox stood with his arms crossed staring out the forward port, “We’re not going on foot, but I agree it’s too far.  We need to minimize our exposure out there.”

I rolled my eyes, “Like I said, too far.  Give me a wider scan of the area, let’s see if we can find something.”

Maddie turned back to her console, her fingers danced over the controls, hands in concert with her mental commands.  She hunched over and brought her face close to the monitor in front of her, “Ahhh, I got something, not too far, maybe fifteen miles?”

Knox grunted.

I glared at him, then turned to Maddie, “Show me.”

She put it up on the main screen.  She was right, the terrain scan showed a large, hexagonal clearing that would fit the ship.

I stroked my chin with my fingers, forgot to shave, “What is it?  It’s obviously man-made, but it’s in the middle of nowhere.”

Maddie ran one hand up and down the back of her head, “Could be a landing pad.  Freight drop-off?  Ancillary supply depot?”

Knox shook his head and approached the screen.  He pointed at it, “No, not an LZ, this is flat, natural terrain; it’s not manufactured, there should be supports, paving.  And there’s no roads leading to it, no light markers, nothing.”

I cocked my head, “Could have been destroyed in the cataclysm.”

Knox shook his head, “Not utterly.  There would be wreckage, debris.  We’d see some sign of it.  No, it was never there.  This is something else.”  He traced his finger around the hexagon, “What’s this here?  These clusters?”

Maddie screwed up her face, “Dunno.  They’re small.  Could be rocks, could be small structures.  I can’t tell at this range.  We’re getting a lot of interference on the sensors.”

I raised my eyebrows, “That’s an understatement.  It’s gonna be a rough ride down there.”

Knox rested one hand on the back of my chair, “A rough trip in general.”

I looked up at him dubiously, “Yeah, well, there’s nothing for it now.  Let’s get it done.  Go strap in.”

Knox gave a short nod and headed back into the ship.  There was nowhere secure for him in the cockpit, he’d have to head back to the cargo hold, or more likely, up to his turret.

I got myself into the jump harness on my chair and tightened them up, “That goes for you too.”

Maddie gave a grunt, and heard the click of her restraints.

I looked out the forward port at the glowing ball of fire.  One million credits.  One…million…credits.  We can do this.  Sweet, space Jesus we can do this.  I held my fist against my mouth, took a breath, and then put my hands on the controls, “All right, let’s do this.  Give me as much power as you can spare to the shields.”

Maddie adjusted some controls, “Got it, rerouting power to deflector shields.  Weapons are offline, Knox.”

He didn’t acknowledge it.

The lights got dim on the bridge as we went to emergency lighting.  The room got cold too, and I saw my breath puffing out in front of me.  Kid cut the heat too, sheesh.  I guess we’re not gonna have to worry about that in a minute.

I started to bring the ship around into a descent path, “Give me a vector to that clearing, and keep an eye on those shields.  I want to know if we’re losing them before we explode.”

A path lit up, superimposed on the main screen, a pair of orange “train tracks,” led down to the surface.  All I had to do was line us up to them, and let gravity do the work.

I opened up the throttle, and used the maneuvering jets to get us into position.  The monitor gave me a target speed to match, so I throttled up to get us there.  We started to descend.  I could see the glow of reentry lighting up the shields, but it was still cold on the bridge.  That was a good sign actually. 

We had good visibility so far, whatever was spewing out of the planet wasn’t spewing this far up, and cloud cover was nonexistent.  For all I knew, they never had clouds to begin with.  As clear as it was, there wasn’t much to see.  It was an endless field of red and orange, one form of burning, melting matter or another was not much different than the next.  It looked so empty. 

I saw the spaceport as we flew overhead.  The place looked to be in good shape, but I couldn’t tell if it was functional.  It was a big, Y-shaped spoke with hexagonal hubs at each end.  A series of domes ran along the perimeter of the spoke; must have been covered landing bays.  Makes sense on a hellhole like this.  Too bad we couldn’t use it.

I could see the cracked surface now, the zig-zagged lines in the planet’s crust pouring out heat and liquid metal.  The whole planet seemed like it was going to come apart.  I was starting to have doubts.  The console honked at me, and I saw the tracks turn red as I deviated out of the path.

Maddie leaned over her console, “You awake up there, old man?”

I scowled and brought us back on course, “Yeah, yeah, I got it, relax.”

Our landing zone was coming up.  We’d flown away from both the spaceport and the research facility deeper into unknown territory.  It looked more solid, with almost no visible fissures or geysers, so that was a blessing.  Thank you, space Jesus.

I throttled back to a cruising speed and brought us in for a landing.  I could see the hexagon clearly; all around it were little stone or metal structures.  They were definitely man-made; the whole place had the look of planned design.  I hit our air brakes and the thrusters, and brought us into a hover.  I lined us up over the hexagon with the jets; we were blowing up a lot of dust around us now, “How are the shields?”

Maddie nodded her head, “Shields are holding.”

I nodded a few times, “Okay, setting us down.”

I eased off the jets and dropped us down smoothly; a perfect landing.  I can do some things right, not like everyone says.  I turned down the engines, but kept them idling.  Dust was settling around us.  There was a rumble and crack like thunder in the distance, but it was probably something much worse than that, “Shields?”

Maddie blew out her cheeks and bobbed her head back and forth, “Still good.  I’ll tell you if it changes.”

I frowned.  A chill went up my spine.  Don’t know if it was the cold room or my nerves, but I didn’t like it.  I slowly unbuckled myself from the chair and stood up.  I felt vibration in my feet, “Are we sure this thing is stable?”

Maddie smirked, “Noooo, in fact I know it’s not.  Will it hold together long enough for us to get the job done?”  She threw her palms up and shrugged, “Dunno.  But it hasn’t blown up yet, so might as well take advantage of it.”  She made a shooing motion with her hands, “Go!  Do your thing.”

My mouth felt dry.  I worked my jaw up and down a few times.  I leaned over the console to look out the forward port.  Dust was settled now, and I could see the structures clearly.  They were squat pyramids with flat tops; arches surrounded them alternating round and flat-topped arches.  Too dusty or sooty to tell if it was metal or stone, but I could see doors and windows in the pyramids, all sealed shut.  If anyone was home, I couldn’t tell, “Give me a wide-band scan.”

Maddie spun in her chair, “You got it, boss.  Scanning now...”  She studied the screen, “Got some interference here, but I can…yeah, got it.  And I’ve got…lifeforms; humanoids.”  She turned and looked at me with her head cocked.

I winced and pulled my head back, “What?  Are you sure?  Where?”

Her eyes were wide, but she nodded and turned to her screen, “I’m sure, and they’re right here.  All around us actually…uh, Knox, I’m gonna reroute power to the weapons…”

I held up a hand, “Hang on, hang on, don’t start something now, and don’t divert energy from those shields.  If there’s a problem, we’ll handle it personally.  Knox, get down here!”

I headed back to the cargo hold; we had our special purchases back there.  I passed Knox coming down the turret ladder on the way, “Let’s go.”

Knox fell in step behind me.

I opened the door to the cargo bay and hit the light panel.  The whole room lit up.  Perimeter of the room had shelves and our supply storage.  Most of the bay was empty, but in the middle of the room were two shiny, new bundles. 

They were each ten feet tall and four feet wide, intimidating and impressive class D EVO suits for hostile environments and hard vacuum.  And they weren’t that generic Galactex shit either, these were Firebrand Engineering’s F063c EVO Suits; power armor with maneuvering jets, servo-augmentation, integrated powerlamp, and a full tool suite plus autonomous life support for up to eight hours and starship grade armor to protect against the most extreme environments.  Damn thing even had an onboard AI to help run it.  Fucking power armor butler.  Hell yeah.

I walked over to one of them, laid a hand on that pristine hull, and soaked it all in, “I have no clue how to operate this damn thing.”

Knox shook his head in disgust and went over to the other suit, “Basic power armor training applies.”

I stared, “Well, that would be fucking helpful if I’d ever trained to use power armor.”  Fucking space marines all trained with the stuff, used them as drop pods and to wreak havoc on…you know, whatever nasty shit was out there in the colonies.

Knox raised an eyebrow at me as he opened the front canopy, “Well, lucky for you, this armor handles more like a ship.”  He looked it over disdainfully, “No finesse anywhere to be found on this thing.  It’s just an ugly slab of metal.”

When it came to armor and weapons, Knox could wax poetic all fucking day.

I gave a small smile, “Sorry we couldn’t buy one of your war machines, you’re lucky Newton ponied up for this.  Next time we’ll buy you an Urzba _Ravager_.”

Knox had a look of pure joy on his face, like a kid in a candy store.  I already knew where his share of the credits was going.

Getting into the damn suit, locking it down, and powering it on took me thirty minutes.  Thirty fucking minutes.  Never took so long to get dressed in my life.  What I got was a display interface shockingly similar to my own ship’s, but a completely alien control interface, and, of course, an AI.

The little voice started talking in my head, “Pilot Assistance Liaison version 48.0.1 online and active.  To interface, just say ‘PAL’and your command.  How can I assist you?”

I rolled my eyes, “Okay, pal, well, first things first, your new name is Butler, got it, Butler?”

Butler took a beat, “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand your request.  My command designation is ‘PAL.’  How can I assist you?”

I sucked in a breath, “Pal, modify program designation to ‘Butler.’  You got that, Butler?”

Butler processed that, “Command designation changed to, ‘Butler,’ how can I assist you?”

I grinned, “Butler, shut up for now, I’ll call you when I need you.”

I looked around at the controls, but I couldn’t figure any of it out.  I saw how it all worked, but not how to work it, and it was pissing me off.  I saw Knox in his suit tapping his head and pointing to me.  Looked like he was saying something, but I couldn’t hear shit in the suit except the hum of all the electronics and machinery.  I gave in, “Butler, I need your help.”

He didn’t rub it in, “How can I assist you?”

I sighed, “Butler, activate communications link and open comms.”

Butler did his thing, “Communications are active.  You are broadcasting on an open comm signal.”

Knox came through right away, “You figured it out finally?”

I flipped him off with the suit, “Yeah, yeah, I’m getting there.  Do I have to do everything with voice commands or what?  I can’t figure out how to get into any of the menus or anything.”

Knox sighed heavily, “You’ve got a selector knob in your right thumb.  Move it around, and press down to select.  You can also tie certain commands to individual finger movements, but you probably don’t want to mess around with that.  Stick to the basic movements, and let your AI handle the rest.”

I muttered out of the side of my mouth, “Should have named him ‘Chauffeur.’”

Knox chuckled, “Look, these things were designed for useless spacers like you to operate for ship repairs.  Most of it is automated by the AI.  There’s even a tutorial that can walk you through it step-by-step.”

I couldn’t see his smug smile, but I knew it was there.

Butler chimed in, “Would you like to run the tutorial program?  Say ‘yes’ to activate the tutorial or ‘no’ to cancel.”

I was losing it, “No!  No, goddammit!  I don’t want the fucking tutorial.  No.  Shut up!  Butler, shut up.”

Knox was cracking up, “You two lovebirds finished?”

I glared through the hatch, “Let’s just do this before I punch a computer.  Butler, switch to comm frequency 104.1, encrypted signal.  Maddie, can you hear us?”

Her voice came through the speakers, “Maddie isn’t here right now, but if you leave a message, she’ll get back to you whenever.”

A computer and a girl.  Both of them.  I took a breath, “Great, hilarious, just make sure the shields hold, I don’t want my ship melting while I’m away.  Okay, Knox, Maddie picked up some lifeforms out there, and we don’t know what to expect at the lab.  How are we for weapons?”

Knox considered, “Well, I could weaponize these things if I had a few days to do it, but it would hardly be worth the effort.  They don’t have any on-board weapons; these things are designed for repairs.  You’ve got a vibro-saw equipped in your tool array, and a plasma torch, but that’s about it.  You could always crush someone with your big, metal arm.  Just smack them.”

I knew who I wanted to smack, “Okay, great, saw and torch, got it.”

Knox picked up a rifle from a bench.

My mouth popped open, “Hey, what gives, what happened to no weapons?”

Knox chuckled and brandished the rifle, “I said no on-board weapons.  I did, however, modify a laser rifle I can use in this suit.”

I looked around trying to see out of the port, “Where’s mine?”

Knox turned his suit’s back on me, “You don’t get one.  You wouldn’t know how to use it anyway.  If there’s trouble, I’ll take care of it.”

I balled up my suit’s hands into creaking fists, “Ooookay, let’s just get going then.  Maddie, we’re moving out, designation, _Tin Can_.”

Knox moved his suit to the cargo ramp, “Designation _Slab_.”

Maddie laughed, “Copy, _Raven_ reading _Tin Can_ and _Slab_.  Shields are holding.  Ready when you are.”

The cargo ramp opened up, and dust swirled around into the hold.  Red light poured in from outside.  _Slab_ stepped down the ramp and moved out of sight. 

I brought _Tin Can_ up behind him, “Butler, activate sensors, and give me a sweep of the area.”

Butler was less than helpful, “I’m sorry, but the F063c model is not equipped with a sensor array.”

I gave a sharp breath out through my nose, “Oookay, can you link us up to the data from the _Raven_?”

Butler did one thing right, “Data link established.  Readout is available on panel two.”

I saw the numbers come in, “Perfect, thank you.  _Raven_ , keep giving us a pulse scan so we don’t get surprised out there.”

_Slab_ was sweeping the perimeter, checking out the buildings surrounding us.  So far there was no activity.

I got a look around as best I could with the ever-present red glow surrounding me, “God, there’s so much glare out there.”

Butler chimed in, “Would you like me to engage canopy filtering?”

I pursed my lips, “Hmm, yes, Butler, please do.”

The canopy on _Tin Can_ darkened, and I could suddenly see without blinding myself.

I nodded, “Butler, that was actually helpful.”

Butler said, “Thank you.  Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.”

Now that I could see, I got a better look around.  I didn’t see much damage in the immediate area.  It seemed like a normal, if barren planet.  I kept expecting to see some trees or a bush or something out ther, but there was nothing, just the buildings and empty space; no discernible plant life.  How did anybody live out here?

_Slab_ completed a circuit of the hexagon, “All clear.  No sign of activity in the buildings.”

I pivoted _Tin Can_ around and didn’t see anything either, “Yeah, all right.  _Raven_ , close up the cargo ramp and keep an eye out just in case.  Let us know if you see anything funny.”

The cargo ramp on the _Raven_ closed and sealed in response.

I settled myself into the controls, “ _Raven_ , give us a vector to the target.”

I was pleasantly surprised to see train tracks come up again leading me off into the distance, “Okay, here we go.  _Slab_ stay on my flank.”  I couldn’t actually see behind me, but I trusted that Knox was there.  I started walking.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It took us hours to reach the research facility.  I never knew walking in power armor could be so tiring.  So much for servo-assistance.  Knox reiterated that these suits weren’t designed for what we were doing, but that got old fast.  I just had to keep thinking, one million credits, one million credits, one million credits, to get me through.

It didn’t take long for the heat to hit us.  As soon as we left the protective bubble of the _Raven’s_ shields, our suits started heating up.  Not enough to kill us, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable inside _Tin Can_ ; I was sweating everywhere.  I thought I was going to drown in there.  Apparently the suits were also not designed with any internal cooling system beyond their insulation.  Fucking spectacular.

When we finally arrived, I immediately regretted not bringing electrobinoculars, I had assumed the suits would have something like that in them.  Knox went on again about how they “weren’t designed for this.”  Real old.  I looked around as best I could using the naked eye.  The main building was V-shaped at a thirty degree angle.  It was flanked by smaller buildings on either side.  Beyond it ran the river of molten metal we’d picked up from orbit. 

The ground here was cracked and uneven.  We’d run into some heat geysers on the way here and gotten blasted by a few.  Luckily, the heated gas erupting from them wasn’t enough to damage our suits, so at least they were good for something.  Along the way, I’d run through some of the tutorials with Butler, and I felt I had a pretty good handle on operating the suit.  I wasn’t sure I wanted that tested though.

I moved into position next to _Slab_ , “ _Tin Can_ to _Slab_ , what do you think?  Main building or check out the side buildings first?”

Knox looked at me through his canopy, “ _Slab_ to _Tin Can_ , I think I don’t like it.  Visibility is poor, and our intel is nonexistent.  Nothing, the Anthean gave us is reliable or useful.  But…I don’t see what choice we have, but to go in and deal with the situation as it arises.  I say we find a way into the main building.  The research is probably there, and that’s our number one priority.”

I bobbed my head from side to side and pursed my lips, “Well, Newton wants those samples, too, but I can’t argue with that plan.  I do think our intel is useful though, and I’ve got a way for us to get inside.  Uhh, Butler, highlight the area I have selected and transmit to _Slab_.”

“Transmitting.  Transmission successful.”

I pointed out an area on the closer branch of the main building, “This area here.  According to the layout from Newton, this area is their garage.  Probably had or hase some hover vehicles in there.  It’s got two big, bay doors in there, and I bet we fit through them.”

Knox considered this, “Sounds better than smashing a hole in the wall.  If the integrity of the facility has been maintained, we may be able to get out of the suits in there.”

My heart soared at the idea, “That’s a go for me then.  _Tin Can_ to _Raven_ , are you reading us?”

Maddie came through over the comms, “ _Raven_ to _Tin Can_ , reading you loud and clear.  Upload is good, and yes, before you ask, the shields are still holding, and no, I haven’t seen anything funny here.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again, scowling, I can’t help but be protective of her, “ _Tin Can_ to _Raven_ , stand by to assist, we’re going to need you to hack our way into the bay doors.”

“ _Raven_ standing by.”

Knox moved _Slab_ up ahead, “ _Slab_ taking point, fall in behind, _Tin Can_.”

I walked _Tin Can_ behind him, “Following.”

I could see the faint outline of the bay doors on the building.  Soot, ash, and dust had caked onto the surface obscuring them.  There was no sign of movement or activity in or around the facility.  The walls and doors all appeared to be intact.  The red glow was brighter here due to the cracks and the river.  I pulled one hand out of the suit’s arm and wiped the sweat from my brow.  I couldn’t see the flashes of light against the glow.

Maddie screamed over the comms, “Tane…!”

_Slab_ dodged to one side with its thrusters, “Take cover!”

I panicked and slammed my hand into the canopy trying to get it back in place.  Instead of turning as I intended, I awkwardly threw the suit’s other arm in front of me.

Plasma bolts slammed into it, rocking the suit.

I jammed down on the thrusters gaining altitude while still struggling to get my arm in the suit, “Evasive action, Butler, take evasive action!”

Butler’s calm voice cut through the chaos, “I’m sorry, but the F063c model is not equipped with evasive maneuvers.”

I screamed and finally got my arm in place.  I stopped gaining altitude and slid laterally instead, just in time to dodge another plasma salvo, “Fuuuuuck!  Who’s shooting us?  Shoot them back!”

I heard Knox’s voice as I struggled with the suit, “Negative, negative, heavy resistance.  Fall back and regroup, fall back.”

The fuck was going on?  Heavy resistance?  Here?  I wasn’t sticking around to argue over it.  I forgot about where I was and the job and just focused on flying.  Thrusters couldn’t be maintained, so I fired them in short bursts to keep the suit in a controlled drop.  I hit the ground, ran forward, jumped, hit the thrusters, cut them off, slow drop, hit, and repeat, and hopped my way out of there like a skipping stone. 

I kept going until I heard Knox on the comms, “Port side, _Tin Can_ , deviate sixty degrees, course correct.  Double time!”

I changed my heading without even thinking and saw _Slab_ in front of me.

Knox opened fire with his rifle, laying down covering fire as I approached.  Lasers sprayed everywhere.

Plasma bolts shot past me and tore up the terrain, opening up vents in the earth which sprayed molten metal and super-heated gas.

I used my thrusters to move around them.  Something lit up on my display.

Knox came over the comms, “ _Tin Can_ , rally point ahead, proceed to marker.  Proceed to marker.”

Knox highlighted a long, cylindrical building north of the main facility on my screen.

I steered towards it, “Butler, ETA to highlighted target, count it down, on-screen!”

The display read thirty-one seconds and started ticking down.

I continued hopping towards it, “Thirty seconds, _Slab_!  _Raven_ , do you have my visual?  What is it?”

I could hear Maddie scrambling around, “Uhhh…hydroponics lab!  Map says hydroponics!  Doors at either end of the cylinder!”

I circled around the building and saw the door in the corner, “I see it, I see it.  Door looks big enough for entry.  Fifteen seconds, _Slab_!  I’m breaking it down!”

Knox screeched over the comms, I could barely hear him over the explosion and my thrusters, “Negative, negative!  Maintain structure integrity!  Maintain structure integrity!  _Slab_ to _Raven_ , _Slab_ to _Raven_ , get that door open!”

Maddie’s voice cracked, “I need access!  I can’t do it without access!  You gotta connect me!  Tane, I need an uplink.”

I didn’t know how to do that, “Uhhh, uhhh, fuck, shit, motherfucker!  Hang on, hang on!  I’m at the door!  Uhhh, just hang on.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw _Slab_ gaining altitude, “En route, _Tin Can_ , get _Raven_ that uplink! Forty-five seconds!”

“Uhhh, uhhh,” I panicked and looked all around the cockpit.

Butler’s voice cut through my panic, “Diagnostic tool selected from tool array.  Align peripheral with access point.”

I saw the probe fold out from the array on the suit’s right arm like a multitool, “Good job, buddy, great job!”  My hand was shaking as I tried to align the probe.  If I jerked the controls too hard I’d snap it off.

Knox squawked over the comm, “Thirty seconds!”

Sweat dripped in my eyes, I was afraid to move the stick.

Butler spoke again, “Fine manipulation mode activated.”

Oh, thank you, space Jesus!  The movement speed on the probe slowed down, and I could lay on the stick to align it.  I sank it in place and engaged, “Upload c-“

Maddie cut me off, “Decrypt program running!”

_Slab_ was almost to me, “Ten seconds!”

Come on, come on!  I watched the probe rotate back and forth in the I/O port and blue lights flashed around it, but the door was still closed.   I cocked back my other arm to smash it down.

“Clear!” Maddie shouted.

The blue lights turned green and the door slid open.  Mist poured out of it.

I moved to rush inside.  A red light flashed on my screen and an alert honked at me.

Butler spoke, “Error!  Diagnostic probe must be disengaged.”

“Oh, goddammit, disengage!  Disengage probe!  Butler, disengage probe!” I slammed the controls back waiting for manual control.

The probe rotated and popped out.

The suit lurched and smacked into _Slab_.

_Slab_ pushed back against me and aimed me towards the door, “Inside, soldier, inside!”

I stumbled through the door.  Condensation covered the canopy.  I couldn’t see anything.  I heard the door close behind me and the whirr of _Slab_.  Then it was silent except for my heavy breathing.

Maddie roared through the speakers, “Are you okay?  Tane?  Knox?  Answer me!”

Knox beat me to it, “ _Slab_ to _Raven_ , _Slab_ and _Tin Can_ arrived safely.  No casualties.  All secure.  Standby, will advise.”

The fog cleared from my canopy and streaks of water dripped down it.  I got a distorted view of the hydroponics lab, row upon of crops were laid out in front of me with irrigation pipes and sprinklers surrounding them.  The outside glow was a muted pink in here.

I heard Knox on the comms, “Temperature readings are good.  Structure’s integrity is intact.  Atmosphere is breathable.  Opening canopy.”

I checked my readout and saw he was right, “Butler, open canopy, let me out of this thing.”

The cool air hit me and filled my lungs.  It tasted like wet dirt and grass, but I didn’t mind it compared to the stale sweaty air of the suit.  I peeled myself out of the suit and promptly fell to the ground.  My arms and legs felt weird, and I was dizzy.

Knox appeared over me and pulled me to my feet, “You’re disoriented from being in the suit so long.  It’ll pass.”

I nodded and leaned against _Tin Can_.  Dammit if Butler hadn’t saved my life back there, along with Knox and Maddie as usual.

I was sucking wet air in through my nose trying to learn how to breathe again, “What happened out there?  Who attacked us?”  I looked around and listened to the quiet, “And why did they stop?”

Knox was on the move.  His laser rifle at the ready, he stalked through the rows of crops, “They were plasma turrets mounted on the main buildings; didn’t recognize them under all the soot.  Some kind of automated defense system for the facility.  We must have triggered it when we didn’t broadcast their IFF code.  They stopped firing on us when we entered their building.  Made a guess that they were programmed not to open fire on their own facility.”

I straightened up, “That was a hell of a gamble.”

Knox snorted and moved farther into the lab, “You’ve got to take chances on the battlefield, go with your gut.  Don’t have time to think it all through all the time.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, “Yeah, well, I was having some technical difficulties at the time.”

Knox was deep in the room now, and I could barely see him, “Don’t beat yourself up, Maahu, you recovered quickly and got us here safely.”

A compliment from Mr. Perfect; I was truly blessed this day.  I felt more like myself and took a few tentative steps without falling over.  I decided to risk it and follow after Knox.

Knox stopped before I could reach him and held up one fist.  He dropped into a crouch.

I didn’t know what to do, so, I just stopped and crouched down too.

Knox aimed his rifle swept it around in a short arc.  Then he leapt over the row of crops and disappeared, “Hands up!  Don’t move!  I will fire!”

I almost threw my hands up myself.  I pushed the bushy crops apart and stepped through them.

Knox was two rows over silently staring into a patch of vegetables.

I made my way slowly towards him.

He wasn’t moving, just turning his head slightly.  His brow was furrowed like he was concentrating.

I tried to peer around him as I approached, but I couldn’t see what he was looking at, “Knox…what’s going on?”

He turned his head partway towards me and gave me a strange look, “I’m talking to this boy…can’t you hear him?”

I stopped and stared at him.

Knox nodded, “Ah, okay, I understand.”  He leveled his rifle at the crops, “All right, step out, show yourself.”  He took a few steps back as the crops parted.

A black hand emerged from the vegetation.  I thought it was wearing a glove at first because it was black and almost waxy, but an irregular band of bright yellow ran over the knuckles.  Despite the coloring and texture, it looked otherwise human.  Then the rest of him emerged.  He looked very much like a human boy.  He was dressed only in a long, purple shirt that reached past his knees.  The shirt was long-sleeved with a high, straight collar, and it was covered in a wavy, embroidered pattern of darker purple waves running down it.  There was a design running down the sternum, and it and the collar were covered in a gold and red pattern.  The boy’s skin, what I could see of it, was jet black and covered in a series of bright yellow spots and stripes.  He was hairless with a long, black tail.  Some alien species I wasn’t familiar with; something like a Tarzissian if they just had the coloring of a lizard instead of all their features.

The boy walked out from between the crops calmly.  He held his hands up casually at his shoulders with fingers spread to show he was unarmed.  He turned and looked at me.  He had brown human-like eyes, but the whites were solid black instead.  I felt his voice in my head, _I mean you no harm.  I am Szagkar Mystic.  I was only here gathering some food.  I hid when I heard the shooting.  Please, sir, I am only trying to feed my family._

Ah, shit.  The kid had the space magic!  The cosmic whatsit.  That didn’t sit too easy with me.  Still, the kid seemed harmless enough.  I was just astonished to see anyone alive here at all.

The boy gave a little smile, _There are many of us still living here, sir.  Some humans too._

Ah, shit.  Double shit.  The fucker was mind-taking me!  Fuck, fuck, hide your thoughts, hide your thoughts.  Toast.  Jam.  Tits.  Uh, toast, toast.  Tits.  Fuck!

The boy laughed, _It’s all right, sir.  I’m not doing anything to you.  We’re just communicating.  It is an ability I have through the magic, as you say, and I am a mystic of this energy.  You are the one sending your thoughts to me, sir, I am not taking them.  Be calm, be at peace._

Knox looked around the kid to me.

I gave him a nervous smile.

Knox narrowed his eyes.

I let out a sigh, “It’s all right.  The kid’s okay.  Put your hands down.”  I motioned for him to lower his hands, “Ah, fuck, um, do I have to think that?”  I put a hand to one temple.

The boy laughed and shook his head as he lowered his hands, _No, sir, it’s okay, I can understand you okay.  I am learning Basic from Dr. Carter._

The boy cleared his throat, and held out his hand, “How do you do?”

I took the kid’s hand and gave it a shake.  His hand was surprisingly cold to the touch, “I’ve had better days, kid.  I’m Tane by the way, that’s Knox.”  I pointed over the kid’s shoulder.

He turned to Knox.

Knox gave a little nod, “We’ve met.”

The kid looked back and forth between us, _That was you that caused the shooting?_

I pursed my lips and rubbed the back of my head, “I wouldn’t say caused it so much as got caught into it.”

Knox stared at me, “What’d he say?”

I gave him a blank look.

The kid gave a weak smile and shrugged, _I can only speak to one mind at a time, so your friend can’t hear me when I speak to you or vice versa._

I rolled my eyes, “Great.”

Knox stared at me expectantly.

I waved him off, “It’s…don’t worry about it.  I’ll catch you up if you need to know something.”

Knox shrugged and walked off to check the area.

The boy studied me, _You could not have come here like this._   He motioned his hand up and down at me, _You had a vehicle?_

I pointed a thumb over my shoulder, “Power armor.  Good for the heat, not so great for combat.”  I looked him over, “What’s your story?  You’re out here in just a nightshirt.”

The boy looked down at his shirt and pulled it out as he studied it.  He smiled, _It is heat resistant, as am I._

I raised an eyebrow.

The boy held out his hands and wiggled them in front of him, _My people, the Fezusril, our skin is very resistant to high temperatures.  Our planet has always been hot, you see.  We have had periods of the high heat like this before.  It is just…the humans brought it on sooner than it should have.  But the Fezusril have adapted; we live and prosper._

I gestured to the plants surrounding us, “That why you’re stealing crops?”

The boy shrank into himself and shrugged, _Just making the best of the situation.  We can live without them with our food supplies, but these are…more delicious._   He smiled, _Surviving can be boring.  I wanted to bring good food to my family.  I did not mean offense.  You work for Panstellar?  You’re here to fix the lab?_

I hesitated, “Umm, uh, well…”  Tits.  Tits.  Tits.  Grammar.  Line spacing.

The kid gave me a weird look, _If you work for them, then what was all the shooting about?  Did you…did you trigger the defenses?_

Ah, fuck it.  I slumped my shoulders, “Look, kid, the truth is I don’t work for Panstellar.  I’m an…independent contractor.  I’m here doing salvage for my employer.  I need to get in that lab, grab a few things, and get out of here.  Taking advantage of the situation, just like you.”

He studied me seriously for a few moments, then threw his hands up, _It makes no difference to me.  It’s not my lab.  So we are both thieves._   He gave a goofy smile.

I rolled my eyes.  I walked over to him and put an arm around his shoulder, “Since we’re commiserating comrades and all, maybe you could help us out?”

The boy looked to my hand and then back to me, _Me?  Help you?  How?  Getting shot up by lasers??_

I pointed a finger at him, “That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m looking to avoid, for all of us.  You know this place better than my partner and I, so how about you give us the lowdown?”

The boy looked around from side to side, _I’m not sure what you want to know.  Um, the lab is dangerous.  I usually stay away from it.  I just sneak in here for food from time to time.  My uncle used to work there before the accident._

My face lit up, “Uncle, you say?  Used to work there?  As in has credentials to access the building?  Knows the layout?  Etc.?  Etc.?”

He made an awkward face, _Ummm, I suppose so.  It’s how I was able to get in here._

I looked behind me where Knox was patrolling, “Knox!”  I waved him over.  I looked at the kid intently, “Kid, I would very much like you to introduce me to your uncle.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The kid’s village wasn’t far from the facility, but we’d have never spotted it from orbit.  It was tucked underneath a natural overhang of rock and built into the side of a mountain.  The place was otherwise laid out just like where we’d landed the _Raven_ ; big hexagon in the center of the village surrounded by buildings.  Couldn’t fit her here, or I’d have had Maddie fly her over.  We gave her the heads up instead and let her know we were getting intel from the locals. 

The kid told me his people wouldn’t bother her over there, but I told her to stay vigilant.  I got a good read from the kid; which is a talent of mine, except I’m usually not basing that off of telepathy.  The kid’s space magic was variable I didn’t know if I could account for.  I’d heard stories about it before; everyone in the galaxy has.  These space witches could do all sorts of things with their powers; most of it destructive.  The scariest stories were about the ones that could take over your mind and make you their slave.  Some people said not even death could free you from them.  Luckily, these witches are pretty rare, and I’d managed to steer clear of them until now.  Knox had seen them in action before out on the colonies.  All he would say is that they were scary.  If Knox thinks so, then I’m fucking terrified.

The kid didn’t seem like that at all; seemed like a good kid.  Okay, he was talking in my head and stealing my thoughts, but he seemed okay.  He hadn’t enslaved us as of yet.  Come to think of it, for all I know, the kid was leading us to his family to eat us.  Except that it was my idea.  Or was it…?

Like the kid said, his people were used to dealing with the extreme heat of their world.  Their homes were climate-controlled and all setup with an airlock-like system for entry.  Knox and I managed to get into his home without getting ourselves incinerated, and the inside of his home was wonderfully pleasant; nice and cool without any humidity.  I understand now why they build their homes like bunkers.

Szagkar’s home was a little cramped though because he had his extended family plus guests living in it.  Szagkar’s parents, six siblings, two uncles and aunts, eight cousins, one grandparent, and a visiting doctor were all staying there.  The last thing these people needed were two houseguests, but they welcomed us in with open arms.  Literally, open arms.  I was hugged and kissed by almost every member of the household before I cross the threshold.  Knox was the same, and I swore he was gonna kill somebody.  I was starting to have a better feeling about Szagkar, and worse feeling about myself.  One million credits.  One million credits.  Actually…that might be a bad idea.  Let’s just stick to tits and leave it at that.

To my great relief, Szagkar was the only mystic in the family.  Fezusril names apparently included your job title.  I’m glad my people didn’t do that or I’d be walking around as Tane Bum.  Szagkar’s father was Jozar Philosopher and his mother Prazax Doctor, his aunt Mozaga Teacher and so on.  Szagkar’s uncle in question was Ragzix Scientist.  He was, of course, the only member of the family not currently at home because the universe hates me.

Instead, Knox and I were treated to the family’s other guest, Dr. Arthur Carter, a historian from Rima III, here learning about the Fezusril.  Carter looked to be in his late sixties; gray-haired, thin, and half a foot or so taller than me.  He was dressed in a battered and dirty maroon flightsuit which may have been the only piece of clothing he owned.  Carter came alive as soon as he saw two other humans enter the house.  The opportunity to speak with Basic-speaking sentients about his work was irresistible.  I know, I tried to resist it.

Carter sat down next to me, pressing knee to knee, opened his mouth, and the words just poured out, “It’s so good to see fellow humans here on Glovruna Nine!  I thought I was destined to be the last one.  It’s been a fascinating learning experience here with the Fezusril, but it’s just so nice to see some of your own kind, do you know what I mean?  Wow, it’s just been such a whirlwind.  I don’t even know where to start.  You know the Fezusril are just a fascinating culture, the likes of which I have not yet seen in the galaxy!”

I tried to escape.  I tried to entreat Szagkar’s family, Knox, anyone, just not me.  But they all abandoned me to my fate.  My only choices were to stay there and listen to this bore or head back into the blistering inferno outside.  I thought about taking my chances with the molten metal.

Carter’s eyes and mouth were wide open, and neither ever shut.  He leaned in to me, he leaned back.  He looked off into space and danced his hands in the air.  He’d contract himself into the chair, wrapped up in his own arms, legs crossed, and then suddenly burst out of the position to practically leap into my lap, “They have some kind of, uh, um, some kind of biological adaptation I think it is to temperature.  The skin of the body is not ordinary tissue, it’s like a heat sink or shunt or some kind of an insulation.  Their eyes even have a special coating on them to retain moisture.  I mean, I’m not a biologist or xenobiologist or geneticist, but even I can see the wonder that they are to live here like this!”

I tried to interject something, “Yeah, they su-“

But the man just kept going.  He got so close I thought he was going right in my mouth, “They have here, across all the clans and tribes and families and whatnot, an entirely peaceful society.  A species-wide pacifism is just fundamental to their nature, and I have never seen anything like it.  Philosophy is apparently an undertaking of the utmost importance in their society.  Jozar comes from a continuous line of thirty-seven philosophers, all father and son, one after another for thirty-seven generations.  It’s amazing!  My father was a corporate man himself, and mother worked in law; I don’t think we have any kind of tradition coming even close to that in my family.  Their species devotes their lives to the betterment of others, both of their own species and foreign species as well.  This service and charity and are just central to who they are.  Why, they welcomed me into their home quite insistently, and they’ve been keeping me here like one of their own for months.  Without complaint!  Luckily they have sworn off all violence or I may have been in danger.”  He waved a hand and gave a little chuckle that just streamed along with the rest of his conversation.

I smiled through gritted teeth, “Lucky indeed.”

Carter nodded, very pleased with himself, “It’s why they were so welcoming to Panstellar and allowed them to setup their research facility here without any problem, and so many of them assisted with the research.”

Shit.  This was what I needed to hear about; I had to keep him on this topic, “Like, uh, Ragzix, Uncle Ragzix, right?  He worked for Panstellar?”

Carter to seemed to just remember the man, he looked up, and I could almost see the spark of insight flash off over his head, “Why, yes, yes, of course.  Ragzix worked there for some time.  Energy research was not of primary interest to the Fezusril, but they did have ancillary interest in it as a compliment to their primary industry.”

I blanked out, confused, and I missed what he said after that, I threw a hand in his face, practically knocking him out, “Wait, wait, wait, what?  Go back.  Back up.  What did energy research have to do with philosophy?”

This was my chance.  I should have just run.  I’d managed to shut him up for a few seconds.  He sat there, mouth still opening and closing, but no words coming out, but I foolishly waited, “…uhh, wha, wha, what?  What now?  Philosophy?  Whatever do you mean?”

He was lucky my pistol was back on the _Raven_.  I sighed, closed my eyes, then opened them again, shaking one hand in his face, “Philosophy!  Philosophy, you said philosophy was their primary industry.  What does energy research have to do with philosophy?”

Carter recoiled from me.  He screwed up his face as though a rotting stench emanated from me, “I said no such thing.  I never stated that.”

I rolled my eyes, “You said it was of utmost importance to them!”

He held one finger up, closed his eyes, hung his mouth open, and nodded, “Ahhh, yes, I did say that.  That is true.  That is very true.  It is of utmost importance to them, I think I said that almost exactly, you are a good listener!”

Unfortunately, that was one of my burdens in life; hazard of a reporter.  I rolled my hand in front of him, “And…?”

Carter looked very pleased with himself and tugged on his flightsuit, “Well, I did say that, and it is true, it is of utmost importance to them…but it has nothing at all to do with energy research.”  He held up a hand, stringing me along to his big reveal, “However, as I said, it is of some interest to their primary industry here; which incidentally is what brought me to them in the first place.”

He danced his eyebrows and gave a dramatic flourish.  He held up one hand in front of me, gave a smug smirk, and with exaggerated motion, pulled the glove off of his hand.  It revealed a perfectly ordinary looking hand.

I stared nonplussed.

Carter gave a little snort and waved it at me, “Go on and touch it.  Go on.”

I looked around again for some means of escape.  None was forthcoming.  I reluctantly reached out and took his hand.  I shrugged.

Carter looked at me expectantly, “Well, how does it feel?”

It felt, like an older man’s hand; kind of rough, kind of wrinkly, a little clammy, “Normal, I guess?”

Carter pulled his hand away and placed it on his chest and laughed, “Well, of course it does, and that’s the point.”  He then proceeded to yank it off and toss it in my lap.  The fingers wiggled.

I damn near shit myself and gave a shout that rang through the house.  I recoiled back, dropping the hand on the floor, and slammed into the wall hitting my head.

It went dead quiet in the place.

My head was ringing.

Carter stared at me.

Knox rushed into the room, followed shortly by Szagkar and his family piled in behind him.

We all stared at the wiggling appendage on the floor; a glowing bio-mechanical connector terminated from it.

Szagkar’s mother, Prazax Doctor sighed and pushed through the group.  She picked up the hand, blew off the end of it, and jammed it back into the socket in Carter’s arm.

He winced sheepishly, “I guess that was a bit much…”

I just glared incredulously.

Knox tried to stifle a smile, but then burst into laughter.

It was contagious and spread to Szagkar’s family until they were all laughing.

Carter chuckled softly, and I just sighed.

Knox shook his head and walked away.

Szagkar’s family followed after, but Szagkar remained behind with us.

Carter rubbed at his artificial arm, “I guess I have a bit of an entertainer in me.”

I took a seat warily and gestured to his arm, “What the fuck does that have to do with the Fezusril?”

Szagkar lifted Carter’s arm and pointed to himself, _It is one of ours, sir._   He smiled proudly.

Carter gave a weak smile, “Have you ever heard of _Helping Hands for the Galaxy_?”

It sounded vaguely familiar, but I shook my head.

Carter took a breath, flexed his hands, and folded them in front of him, “Well, it’s a charity started by the Fezusril to help those who have lost limbs due to sickness or accident or what have you.  They specialize in this sort of cybernetic replacements as their primary industry.”

I frowned, “I’ve never heard of them before.  I know Rask, TCM, Sthene, even Galactex, but I’ve never heard of any Fezusril cybernetics.”

Carter shrugged, “Those are the big names that focus on mass production; cybernetics for profit.  Those are stock models; functional, maybe, but not like the real thing.  Fezusril is all about unique, custom prosthetics; about giving you back your hand.  Not a hand, your hand.  The feel, the touch, everything about this hand is exactly like it was my own; my original hand.”  He waved me off, “I lost it on a research trip on Canete VI.”

I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts, “So, wait a minute, you’re telling me these pacifist aliens on a remote fireball in the middle of nowhere make the most amazing cybernetic replicas in the galaxy for needy people in the galaxy…because, they, what, just like to help people?”

Carter nodded with a grin.

I had to admit it would make for a pretty good story.  Got the reporter in me interested, but that was losing sight of the target.  One million credits.  One million credits.

Szagkar held his hands to his chest, _It is fundamental to our lifestyle here to help others.  It is the means by which our peaceful existence is possible.  If we were not devoted to that one idea, I’m sure we would be beset by war and strife like other species are.  I have tried, with my family’s help, and Dr. Carter’s, to use my abilities to be a force for peace and good in the galaxy.  I am still learning what I am capable of and what my place in the galaxy is._

Credits.  One.  Million.  Credits.  I closed my eyes and just saw the numbers.  I was trying to keep other thoughts out.

I opened my eyes, and cleared my throat, “So Panstellar’s energy research could have benefited the galaxy, so the Fezusril wanted to help them?”

Carter bobbed his head, “Yes, of course, and more directly, it could have been put to use in the prostheses the Fezusril create.  So, you see, it was really a tragedy for both parties when the incident occurred.”

I rested my elbows on my knees and stroked my chin, “What did happen here?  Obviously, it was before you got here.”

Carter nodded solemnly, “Yes, and thankful so, for I have heard the whole business was dreadful.  Energy research is a volatile business, as I’m sure you can guess.  Panstellar was pushing boundaries into something new.  They’d taken precautions, what they thought were all the proper precautions, but they just didn’t know enough about the planet to be really prepared.  They hadn’t asked enough questions beforehand.”

I’d been burned by that before myself, so I knew all too well.  I nodded.

Carter returned the nod, he looked off wistfully, “From what I heard, they were testing their new reactor, pushing its limits and trying to produce results.  They had a secure laboratory underground in their facility with top-notch construction and shielding and whatever goes into all of that.  Well, something went wrong; they had an accident.  The experiment turned volatile, and they disposed of it.”

I grimaced, “Disposed of it?  How do you dispose of an energy bomb?”

Carter shared a look with Szagkar, then back to me, “Well, they dumped it and buried it to contain the explosion.  They had a chute or shaft of some kind to dump any explosive device underground.”

I winced.

Carter shrugged, “They didn’t know what would happen.  They were not familiar with the cyclical nature of the climate on Glovruna Nine.  It’s not as if the climate changes from day to day or year to year.  We’re talking change over hundreds or thousands of years.  Well, normally that is.”

I scrunched my brow, “So one explosion was able to skyrocket temperatures all over the planet?”

Szagkar shook his head, _We believe that the explosion stirred change already taking place beneath the planet’s surface.  It accelerated the geothermic changes in the planet and…sent them bubbling to the surface._

I looked to Carter, but he motioned back to Szagkar.

Szagkar closed his eyes and took a deep breath, _It caused the ground to crack apart and drove the churning magma below to the surface.  It started some kind of chain reaction._   He shook his hands violently in the air, _Once the first eruption took place, more and more followed.  It was raining fire from the skies for days.  We were safe in our homes, built as they are, but it devastated the landscape.  The resulting damage allowed fissures to form, and the fissures vented more magma and gases to the surface, and it all kept feeding itself until it became what it is today._

He stared at me, _You have seen what it is like out there.  You know that it is still ongoing and unstable.  No one knows when it will finally settle._   He cleared his throat, “But we are adaptable.”  He looked to Carter.

Carter nodded vigorously.

The boy smiled.

Carter patted Szagkar on the knee, “They’re indomitable; survivors.  It will take time before their society fully recovers, but it is remarkable how they carry on as they do.  It’s a story, well, it could well be my life’s work to tell it to the galaxy at large.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a twinge of jealousy at that.  Another life.  One million credits.  I shook my head, “And in the aftermath of that, what, Panstellar just evacuated?”

Carter nodded with eyes wide, “Well, they had to; the whole place was falling apart around them.  Temperatures must have been unbearable within hours.  The instability formed right around their facility.  They didn’t all make it off as it was.”

Szagkar frowned and shook his head, and I could see real empathy on the kid’s face; he really felt for these people.  He was the real deal.  He looked at me, _It was terrible.  Tragic that so many should die needlessly, and from an attempt to do good._

Well, there might still be a chance for that, and hopefully no one else was gonna die, “I’m sorry, kid.”

Carter studied me, “But what brings you here?  Szagkar said something about you wanting to gain access to the facility?”

I nodded, “That’s right.  We were contracted to retrieve the research data and samples from the facility.”

He squinted his eyes, “But you don’t work for Panstellar?”

I shook my head, “We’re independent.”

He nodded slowly, “Oh, I see.”  He looked to Szagkar.  They locked gazes for a few moments; I assumed having a private conversation.

Szagkar turned to me with a determined look, _There is more danger in the facility than just the automated defenses, but…we could help you get past them.  If we did, then you’d have to do something for us in return.  Sound fair?_

I shrugged, “Depending on all the particulars, yeah.  What do you want in return?  Money?”

Szagkar shook his head, _When you leave…take me with you.  I want passage off-planet._

I frowned, “What?  Come with us?  Umm, what?  Why?  Why us?  Couldn’t you leave with Carter or book passage on a ship?”

Carter shook his head, “I’m not leaving for quite some time; I have so much work to do chronicling the history of an entire species!  And there are no transports anymore, not since the incident.  Trade on the planet was limited to begin with, but now it’s nonexistent.  You’re Szagkar’s only hope to leave.”

I looked back and forth between them, “But why would you want to leave?  To what end?  Don’t your people need you here?”

Szagkar looked up to the ceiling, _They need me more out there.  It’s how I can best help my people and the galaxy.  I can be our people’s advocate, and with my abilities, I belong out there in the galaxy, helping others.  I only need reach a place where I can begin to make my way.  Dr. Carter has offered to help._   He pointed to Carter.

Carter smiled, “My university could be a resource to help Szagkar and all the Fezusril; we’ve been planning it for some time actually, but only now has the opportunity been presented to bring it to fruition.”  He gestured to me, “If you can bring the boy to Rima III, then I can ensure he’s put in contact with all the right people to help him from there.”

It wasn’t much to ask, all things considered, but I still felt a little wary about it.  One million credits.  I swallowed my reservations and nodded, “If you can get us inside and past their defenses, then you’ve got a deal.  Now what was that about other dangers?”

Carter and Szagkar shared a look.  Carter scowled and raised an eyebrow, “That one.”  He snorted.

I stared at them blankly.

Szagkar turned to me and nodded, _Not all of the humans left when the disaster happened.  Panstellar fled quickly, and not all of their employees escaped.  But at least one chose to stay behind._

I grimaced, “Chose to stay behind?  How could they?  I mean forget why, how could they survive?”

Szagkar and Carter looked at each other again.

Carter pursed his lips, “Much the same way that I do.”  He pulled at his flightsuit, “If you have some basic protective gear, the right tools, and some shelter, even humans can survive here.”

I was dumbfounded, but I guess it was possible, “I take it you know this person?  Personally?”

Carter looked to Szagkar, “We don’t really know her, but we’ve have several run-ins with her.  She’s unstable and dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?” Knox asked.

We all jumped.

Knox was leaning against the archway leading into the room listening to us for who knows how long.

Carter smirked, “Well, she’s violent and irrational.  She’s armed too.  Not sure if they’re makeshift or actual weapons, but deadly either way.  She also has some sort of limited access or control over the Panstellar facility.”

Knox and I shared a look.  That could be a problem.

Knox turned from his shoulder to rest his back against the wall, “She’s alone though?  No other allies?”

Carter and Szagkar looked at each other and had a brief mental conversation.  They both nodded.

Carter turned to Knox, “Yes, alone, definitely alone.  I don’t think anyone could abide the woman.  I’ve come across her in my research expeditions and Szagkar on his scavenging runs.  She is rather protective of the mines in particular, but all of the Panstellar grounds I’m afraid.”

I looked to Szagkar, “And what happened?  When you two came into confrontation?”

Szagkar considered, _I ran mostly, but later, I was able to use my powers to scare her off.  She’s scared of them.  Since then I have seen her much less._

I relayed this to Knox.

He nodded, “Might be a non-issue then, but we should be prepared.  One hostile on foot with limited resources shouldn’t be much threat to the exos.”

I considered, “Okay,” I pointed to Szagkar, “If you get us the access codes from your uncle and whatever information he has on the lab’s layout, then we should be able to take it from there.  We get what we came for, and you’ve got your ride to Rima III.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

We ate dinner that night with Szagkar’s family.  It was nothing like the usual slop we throw together on the _Raven_.  It was delicious, and there was lots of it to go around for the group.  It was a little spicy  for my tastes, but Knox loved it.  That heat-resistant physiology of the Fezusril must extend to their stomachs too.  Knox and I bunked up together and managed to get a decent amount of sleep before the small house full of people woke us.

Szagkar’s Uncle Ragzix was convinced to help and he surrendered his badge and access codes to us.  Szagkar and Knox put together an approach on the facility that would keep us from getting shot full of holes before we could enter the codes.  Szagkar wanted to accompany us, but Knox and I were adamant that he could not.  Last thing I wanted to do was get this poor kid killed on my account.  We said our goodbyes to Dr. Carter and Szagkar’s family, and Szagkar got to work packing and saying his goodbyes to his family.

Knox and I mounted up in our EVO suits again and headed out to the Panstellar facility. 

I was actually happy to hear Butler’s voice again, “Butler on-line and active.  How can I assist you?”

I grinned, “Butler, you sly son-of-a-bitch, I never got to thank you yesterday for saving my ass.  Way to take the initiative back there.  That was some great work.”

There was a slight pause before Butler responded, “Assisting with the operation of the F063c model is my primary function.”

I laughed, “Well, all right, you just keep assisting like that, and we’ll get along fine.  Butler, open comms to the _Raven_.”

I waited until Maddie’s voice came through the comm, “It’s too early for this.  Didn’t you two sleep?”

I shook my head, “Good morning to you too, _Raven_.  _Tin Can_ and _Slab_ are heading back over to the target to get an early start on the day.”

Maddie sounded surprised, “You are?  You figured out a way to get in there?”

I smiled to myself, “Got myself an access code and badge and everything.”

Maddie laughed, “That’s amazing!  Okay, great, well, once you’re inside I’ll handle the computers.”

I rolled my eyes, “That is why I called…anyway, stay sharp and be ready for our call.  And with any luck, we’ll all be getting out here today with the prize in hand.”

Maddie screeched, “Then we buy all the things!”

I shook my head to clear my ears, “Yeah, right, you can go crazy, kid.  Let’s just get the job done first.  _Tin Can_ out.”

After a short walk, the facility came up over the horizon.  As we approached, I could see some of the damage from yesterday’s battle; the ground was littered with new fissures and vents which the plasma cannons had torn open.  I saw scoring on the earth where plasma bolts struck and the drag trails and landing marks from our EVO suits’ mad scramble across the terrain.  It was a mess. 

I sighed.  Today was a chance to do things differently, to fuck up in a whole new way.

Knox came through on the comm, “ _Slab_ to _Tin Can_ , making my approach, stay behind on my vector.”

I adjusted my controls, “Copy that, _Slab_ , I’m right behind you.  Butler, synchronize navigation path with _Slab_.”

I saw my orange tracks come up on the display and aligned myself to them as we moved up.

The plasma cannons, obvious to me now, started to track us, but we adjusted out of sight.  We couldn’t duplicate the IFF signatures Panstellar used, that was beyond Uncle Ragzix’s knowledge, so we had to sneak up on the place.  I felt a little exposed, given how things went yesterday, and my lack of weaponry, but I trusted Knox knew what he was doing.  We just had to reach one of the doors, didn’t have to be one we could actually fit the suits into, as long as it had an access panel, we could enter our code and get the guns to back off.

Knox moved _Slab_ into position on the far corner of the facility. 

We’d come around the back side of the hydroponics lab and skirted the edge of the molten river to reach a tiny side door.  From the looks of it, it was nothing more than an emergency exit from the building, but it had an access panel, so we could use it.

Knox deployed Uncle Ragzix’s badge on a fine manipulator arm from his suit’s tool array.  I saw a green light from the scanner, and I assumed that was a good thing.  Then he punched in the access code using a probe on the interface screen. 

Knox was tucked safely around the corner away from the plasma cannons, but I was exposed on the ridge.  My options were get blasted or drown in a river of molten metal.  These were not attractive to me.

I saw the interface panel light up, and nothing shot me, so I assumed everything went well.  We had to try going around to the garage bay doors in full view of the cannons and enter the code there.  I was sweating, and not just from the heat.

Knox made his way around the building and kindly placed himself in front of the nearest cannon, “ _Slab_ to _Tin Can_ , come around and enter the code; I’ll cover you.”

I had the luxury of protection from the cannons coupled with exposure to whatever dangers lay within the facility.  One way or the other, nothing was going to be safe about this job.  One million credits.  One million credits.

I could at least do things the easy way, “Butler, use the fine manipulation probe to enter this code on the interface panel: 4-7-1-8-2-0-1-1-2-8-4.”

I watched the little probe flip out from the tool array and punch in the sequence as I’d called it out.  No sense in getting shot for clumsy, control mishaps.

The code was accepted and the door slid upwards.  A huge cloud of vapor billowed out past me as the cool, garage air hit the oppressive heat of the environment.  The condensation only lasted a moment before evaporating.  I was blind and then I could see again before I could even blink.  The garage bay was huge and mostly empty.  There were a pair of hoverbikes in the back corner and a large hovertruck with the Panstellar Innovations logo on it in one of the bays.  The lights were off inside, but clearly the power was still working.

I activated my powerlamp anyway.  I didn’t want to risk getting caught in the dark.  I swept the light around the garage checking for any dangers.  It looked clear, so I stepped inside.

Knox followed in after me, and hit the controls to close the door and turned on the lights.  He flipped his powerlamp on too and swept the room with his rifle.

The door sealed shut with an ominous thud and loud hiss.

Knox and I stood and waited for a few moments to see if anything would happen.

Nothing.

I checked the environmental readings on my readout; atmosphere was clean and breathable and temperature was approaching tolerable.  My windows were starting to fog up again, so I waited until they cleared and all readings were normal, “ _Tin Can_ to _Slab_ , what do you think?”

Knox lowered his rifle, “ _Slab_ to _Tin Can_ , pop it open.”

I situated myself in the suit and pulled my arms back into the cabin, “Butler, open canopy.”

The canopy clicked and swung up, and fresher air hit my face.  It was stale and reeked of oil, but it was fresher than my body odor and sweat.  Everything still looked okay, so I climbed down out of the suit.  I turned back and called over my shoulder, “Butler, keep it powered-up in case we need to leave in a hurry.”

I wasn’t in the suit that long, so the disorientation didn’t hit me this time.  I pulled out my comlink and tried to hail Maddie, “Maahu to _Raven_ , come in, do you read me?”

Maddie answered back, “ _Raven_ reading you, Maahu.  How does it look?”

I walked around the garage tentatively and spotted a short hallway and a pair of doors leading towards the main facility, “Maahu to Raven, so far so good.  Spotted our way in, will advise once we reach the mainframe.”

Maddie answered, “I’ll be waiting.”

I pointed out the doors to Knox.

He nodded and retrieved his rifle from his EVO suit and Uncle Ragzix’s ID card.  He stood next to me, tossed me the card, and lifted his chin towards the doors, “You pop them open; I’ll sweep and clear.”

I shrugged and nodded; not much else I could do.  I approached the door panel and scanned Ragzix’s ID.  I got the green light, and the double doors slid open.

Knox swept inside lightning fast.  It was only a short length of hallway with a set of double doors in the middle and at the end.  Knox stopped at the end of it, “Clear.”

I came inside and looked around.  “Main Facility” ahead and “Particle Accelerator” to our right.  I pointed ahead, “In we go.”

Knox took up position with his rifle, and we repeated the process again.

We opened up onto a larger hallway and lobby area.  There were several doors and hallways leading off from the lobby.  Thankfully, everything was nicely labeled for us in Basic in standard corporate fashion: main entrance and storage closets on our left, mess hall ahead, bathrooms, research labs, and communications room on our right.

Knox swept down the length of the lobby and ducked his head down each hallway.  Everything was well-lit in here, and the air was thankfully breathable and not on fire.  Knox circled back to me, “Clear.  Stay close.”

I nodded, “Seems quiet, let’s try the labs.”  I pointed down one of the halls on our right.

Knox stared at me, “Quiet is usually when you get ambushed.”

I rolled my eyes and shooed him forward.

We made our way down the hall and saw a big sign which read, “Main Laboratory.”  Jackpot.  I pointed it out.

Knox nodded.

I walked up and scanned Uncle Ragzix’s ID.  The doors slid open.  The place was a mess, and a bunch of people must have left in a hurry.  Some huge, mechanical apparatus took up most of the center of the room.  A series of tubes and hoses descended from the ceiling into.  It was an interlocking web of pipes, tanks, and cases.  The whole thing was spread out in uneven spokes around a rectangular core.  I didn’t know what it was, and I wasn’t touching it.  Two heavy doors flanked us on each side, and around the perimeter of the room were several work benches and cabinets.  Chairs were knocked over, plastic transparencies were spilled on the floor, hoses dangling.  The room was in selective disarray with a path of destruction leading out the front door.

Knox did a quick sweep of the room, keeping clear of the big apparatus in the center, “Clear.”  He pointed out the doors with his rifle, “Let’s check these rooms.”

I looked around the lab, but I didn’t see any computer terminals.  I walked back over to Knox and tried one of the doors.  Uncle Ragzix’s ID scanned and the panel went red and squawked at me.  Shit.  I gave Knox a look.

He motioned to the other door.

I tried it.  Red light.  Squawk.  I glared at Knox.

He cocked his head, “Harlow.”

I nodded and called her up on the comm, “Maahu to _Raven_ , we’ve got a problem here.”

Maddie let out a little groan over the comm, “This is why you boys need me around.  Okay, shoot.”

I looked at Uncle Ragzix’s ID card in my hand, “Can’t get access to some rooms off the main lab, and they seem to be where the data is kept.”

Maddie chuckled, “Wouldn’t want to make it too easy for you boys.  All right, no problem.  I’m sure I can hack through Panstellar’s security.  Plug me in.”

I pulled out a device from my belt, a little rectangle about six inches by four inches, a hacker’s deck with remote uplink capability.  I flipped open the back panels and adjusted it to fit over the door access panel and lock in place.  I flipped the switch on to activate it.  A little readout booted up on the front of the deck.  A yellow light was flashing on one side.  It flashed slowly, then rapidly, then slowly again, then rapidly over and over for almost a minute and then went solid red.  That didn’t seem good.

Maddie groaned, “Ugh, no good, I can’t get a connection to the deck.  Hmmm, do you think there’s some interference from the lab?”

I looked around warily.  I didn’t remember seeing any radiation warnings when we entered, and there were no scrubbers, still…it got me a little nervous.  I spun around studying the ceiling and all of the gear in the room, “Well, there’s a lot of heavy equipment humming in here.  I’m gonna go with a solid maybe.”

Maddie gave out a sharp exhalation of breath, “Yeah…okay, well, we’re gonna have to go around it then.  You’ve gotta get me a solid signal into that facility or I can’t help you.”

I groaned, “We can’t use the comlinks for that?”

Maddie scoffed, “Radio waves?  I don’t think so.  I need a solid data connection.”

I looked around, “To this door?  I don’t see how that’s gonna happen.  I thought that’s what the deck was for.”

Maddie sighed, “It is, but…there are ways around that.  And I don’t necessarily need a connection to the door, just to you.  Is there a terminal around anywhere?  Conference room?  Any outside communications access should do.”

I pursed my lips, “We passed the communications room coming in, bound to be something there right?”

Maddie cried out over the comm, “Perfect!  Yeah, head over there and hook me up.”

I spun on my heel towards the door out, “Okay, no problem.  Give me a minute.”  I motioned forward.

Knox followed me out.

I started walking down the hall towards the lobby and Knox stopped me, “Hey, you’re heading up to the front, right?”

I nodded.

He indicated with his head towards the wall which read, “Sample Storage.”  He looked back to me, “You be all right if I go check it out?”

I waved him off, “Yeah, I’ll be fine, go, I’ll just be up here.  Stay on comms, okay?”

He nodded, “Got it,” and headed off down the hall.

I walked back up to the lobby and the communications room.  I tried Uncle Ragzix’s ID.  Red light.  Squawk.  No good.  I studied the lock panel.  Had to do this the old fashioned way. 

I pulled a metal cylinder about a foot long and six inches in diameter off the back of my belt and knelt down in front of the door.  I opened up the security kit and ran my fingers over the tools inside.  I pulled out a little sensor cup and readout and a few, small clamps and prybars.  I attached the cup to the side of the panel and stuck the magnetic back of the readout against the wall.  I gently pried off the face of the panel watching the sensors on the readout.  As soon as I got the panel’s face off, I knew I was set.  This was a junky model I could bypass with ease.  I used some more of the tools in the kit, and a few minutes later, I had the door popped open.

The room was small and functional.  There was a computer terminal in there at a desk, a large routing board, and a deep space holo receiver.  Now I just had to figure out how to rig up a line to Maddie on the _Raven_.  Hmm, maybe I could open a holo transmission to the ship.  I heard Knox coming around the corner, “Hey, Knox, you think Maddie could bounce a data transmission over a holo-“

It wasn’t Knox that came around the corner.  It was a nightmare.  It was half-machine and half-monster.  Her face was gnarled and distorted on one side, head creased, lines all over her face, and one eye bulging out.  The other side of her face, split almost down the middle, was shining metal, wires, and a huge, glowing optical receptor.  Her stringy, disheveled hair was parted to one side to try and cover the machine side of her face, but it hung in uneven clumps, the circuitry visible between the dark mats.  She wore a heavy, armored environmental suit of some kind, not a flightsuit, but some kind of industrial work suit instead.  A little name plate bolted to her armor read, “Yasmin.”  She had on heavy boots and gloves hung from her sleeves exposing her one, dark flesh hand and her mechanical claw.

She was human, somewhere in her forties or fifties maybe, and shorter than Knox, but she looked imminently dangerous.  She was brandishing a heavy torque wrench in her human hand, and her mechanical one pulsed open and closed irregularly.  She stared at me with absolute horror and disgust, “Call…can’t call…no calls…not allowed…”

I flinched and raised my hands up protectively.  I caught myself and eased them down about waist height, “Hey, hey there.  Easy now.  Easy.”

She sneered and her lip and human eye twitched, “No calls.  Can’t call.  No one must know.  Mine now.  Miiiiine.”

Oh, shit.  I backed away towards the communications room, “It’s okay, uh, Yasmin.  Yasmin?  That’s you, right?”

She cocked her head and looked a little disoriented when I said her name, “Me…?  Is me…?  Yas-meen?”  She looked down at her chest and then back up to me.

I gave an awkward smile, “Right, that’s you.  Yasmin.  I’m Tane.  Everything is okay.  Not gonna make any calls-”

That was a mistake.  She was enraged.  She squinted her eye closed, gripped the wrench tight, and slammed it into the wall, “No calls!  No calls!  No calls!  No one knows!”

I backed into the communications room which was definitely a mistake for multiple reasons.  The primary being there was no other way out of the room.  I kept my hands up and glanced around the room for something I could use.  My security kit was on the floor at my feet, open with half its contents out.  I didn’t see anything in the room no datapad, no keyboard, not even a mug, “Hey, no one knows.  No one knows.  It’s okay.  It’s okay.  Calm down.  No one is gonna hurt you.”

She craned her neck at an awkward angle and her mechanical eye narrowed at me, “Hurt you?”  She scowled in determination.

Ah, fuck.  I kicked the security kit at her.  Little tools and indicators flew out and bounced off her armor.  I dropped my shoulder and charged her.

She screamed when the tools hit her and flailed her arms.

I slammed into her, and she was a lot more solid than I expected; I didn’t count on her cybernetics.  I pushed with all my might trying to squeeze past her.

She slid back a few inches, but planted her feet and pushed against me.

I couldn’t get through the gap in time, and she pushed me back into the room.

She swung the wrench into the wall with a crash and bent the door frame in her mechanical hand as she advanced on me.

My back was against the wall, and I was out of ideas.

Knox’s voice came from behind her, “Hey!  Get away from him!”

As she turned towards him, he opened fire.  Laser bolts struck her side and shoulder.  Some deflected off her armor, and others scorched it.

I hit the deck trying not to get blasted by a ricochet.

She flung herself back from the door, away from the communications room and across the lobby towards the front doors.

Knox sprayed automatic fire at her, tearing apart the lobby.

It was hard to see in the chaos how many of the bolts struck her.  She ran screeching through the two sets of front doors and out into the environment.

A wave of heat shot through the lobby as the doors shut behind her.

Knox pushed through the inner doors into the foyer.  He pulled the outer doors secured and tried to lock them without luck.  He called back in towards me, “Tane!  You all right?  You injured?”

I shook my head.  My whole body was tensed, and I was gripping the wall behind me.  I relaxed and let out the breath I was holding, “I’m okay!  Just banged up a little.  You?”

Knox kept his eyes on the outer doors, “I’m fine.  Heard your friend shouting, and I got up here as quick as I could.”

Saved my ass again.  I took a deep breath, “Yeah, thanks!  Got into a little trouble there.  Must be the one Szagkar warned us about.”

Knox nodded, “Looks like it.  Or at least she used to be.  Tagged her a few times, and the heat will probably finish her off the way she ran out of here.”

I frowned and looked around cautiously, “I don’t know.  You didn’t see her close up.  She was half machine or more, and a lot tougher than she looks.

Knox checked the shot counter on his rifle, he frowned at it, “Yeah, could be.  Need to lock this place down before we have to find out again.”

I got up and sat at the computer terminal, “Yeah, good idea, keep an eye out while I get a hold of Maddie.”

Knox nodded and kept his eyes scanning the outer doors and the lobby.

I called Maddie on my comlink, “Maahu to _Raven_ , I’m at the communications center.  I’ve got a receiver here, can we use that?”

Maddie replied over the comm, “Yeah, that’s perfect, open a connection to the _Raven_.”

I connected to the ship and let Maddie do her work.

After a few minutes, she came back on the comm, “Okay, I’m in.  I’ve got full control of the facility’s access points.”

I nodded, kid was a genius, “That’s great, Maddie, now lock it down.  Seal all the exterior doors.”

Maddie paused, “…wait, what now?  Lock it down?  Why?  What’s going on?”

I gathered up my gear to go, “Had a little run-in with an unfriendly local.  Nothing to worry about, but lock it down for us, okay?”

Maddie replied, “Okay, done.  Whole place is secured now.  But hang on a second, you’re gonna need something to access the local computers.  I don’t have access from here.  Put a datacard in the terminal there, I’m gonna transmit something to you.”

I shrugged and did as she asked, “Okay, go ahead.”

Maddie said, “Okay, you’re all set.  You use that on any terminal you find, and the worm I put on it will strip off the data for you.”

Now she was just showing off.  I was still impressed, “All right, thanks, Maddie, heading out now.  We’ll call if we need you.”

Maddie said, “I’ll be here.”

I went back over to Knox in the lobby, “Maddie’s got it all locked down now.”

He nodded, “Okay, good.  Let’s go.”

We went back into the main lab, and tried the side doors there.  Popped right open for me.  That’s where the data terminals were.  I held up the datacard to show Knox, “A little something from Maddie.”

I sat down at the terminal and plugged the card in.  It started doing its thing right away.  I leaned back in the chair and turned to Knox, “Gonna take a little while.  You find the samples?”

He nodded, still looking constantly over each shoulder, “Yeah, got a bunch of crates in the storage room.  They’re all marked as dangerous.  This stuff is volatile.  We’ve got to be careful with it.  Can’t really lug it around in the exos.”

I scrunched up my nose, “Yeah, don’t fancy juggling bombs back to the ship.  What do we do then?”

Knox considered for a moment, “I’m thinking that truck we saw in the garage.  If it’s still running we can use it to haul them out of here and stow the suit on it as well.”

I nodded, “Sounds good.  Probably working, everything in there looked in good shape.  You want me to check it out?”

He shook his head, “No, stay here, keep the door locked, I’ll take care of it.”

I cocked my head, “You sure?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I’ll take care of it.  If I run into trouble, I won’t have you to worry about.”  He grinned.

I gave him a look and shooed him off.

He turned and left.

It took some time to get all the data off the terminal.  When the program completed, I went around the lab and gathered up any loose data I could, print outs, datapads, etc. Then I headed over to the other lab and did the same.

Knox came back as I was packing it all up, “All done here?”

I nodded, sealed up the case, and leaned on it, “Yeah, that’s it for me.  How did it turn out with the truck?”

Knox indicated over his shoulder, “Truck is working, no problem.  Got a bunch of crates loaded up on it.  Let’s take that over, then I’ve got to show you something.”

I was intrigued.  We lugged the case over to the garage.  Knox had the truck loaded as he said; several cases of the raw fuel material were secured in the back of the truck.  Each was clearly emblazoned with warning labels indicating the contents were volatile and explosive.  I was wary of hauling around so much of this stuff, but I didn’t say anything to Knox.  One million credits.  One million credits.

When everything was secured, Knox brought be back over to the storage room.  The place was filled with more cases of the raw fuel than I could count.  I didn’t like being in there around it.  Didn’t know if I could feel the ground shaking underneath me or if I was just imagining it.  Or maybe I was just trembling.

Knox brought me around to the back of the room behind stacks of the fuel cases, “Found this.”  He pointed to a textured plate in the floor.  It was a freight lift of some kind.  No track or opening in the ceiling, so it had to go down.

I look from the lift to Knox, “Where does it go?”

Knox shrugged, “Don’t know yet, thought we’d check it out together.  If the fuel is going down there, then there must be something worth taking a look at down there too.”

I nodded, “We might as well, we’re done here otherwise.”

Knox and I stood on the lift together, and he press the controls to lower it.

The plate descended through the floor along a track on the wall.  The room below us was dark.

Knox crouched and aimed down his rifle, sweeping it around the room.

I pulled out a flashlight from my belt and turned it on.  I flashed it around the room.  Looked like a small storage room of some kind, but it was empty with one door leading out.

When the lift reached the bottom, we hopped off.

Knox made his was across the room and stood with his rifle ready to the side of the door.  He nodded towards it.

I made my way over with the flashlight, and I hit the door controls to open it.

Knox swept out the door with his rifle into a brightly lit hallway. 

The hall was U-shaped, and there were doors at either end of it.  Behind us were a set of stairs leading up, and ahead of us was a secure room marked, “Restricted Access Laboratory.”

Knox moved quickly from one end of the hall to the other, and then back to me.  He lowered his rifle, “Clear.”

We shared a look.  I indicated the lab.

Knox nodded.

I tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge, “Hmm.”  I tried Uncle Ragzix’s badge.  Red light.  Squawk.  I looked at Knox.

He shrugged.

I pulled out my comlink and called Maddie, “Maahu to _Raven_ , Maddie, I’ve got a locked door here on a sublevel, some kind of restricted lab.  Can you open it up for us?”

Maddie replied, “Uhhh…I don’t see any sublevel.  It’s not in our report or in the system.  I don’t have access to it.”

I frowned, “Well, then that definitely means it’s got the good shit in it; the one million credit shit Newton’s after.”

Maddie sighed, “Yeah, sorry.  Can you crack it?”

I eyed the door and access panel, “Yeah…I’ll give it a shot.  Stand by.”

I got out my security kit and emptied it; laid everything out on the floor in front of me.  I picked up whatever sensors I had and attached them to the door and the panel.  They weren’t telling me much, but might help me gauge my progress.

I worked a long time on it.  Mechanically, I wasn’t getting anywhere.  I had the whole panel taken apart and hanging by wires from the wall.

Knox just hung out waiting for me, doing a slow patrol of the hall.

I picked up the panel and looked at it.  I called Maddie on my comm, “Can I run this thing manually?  The deck you gave me?”

Maddie paused, “Well…yeah, yeah, you could do that I guess…but you don’t know how to do that?”

I frowned, “Walk me through it.”

I attached the remote access deck to the dangling panel and turned it on.  The yellow lights went to red.

Maddie got me into the menu to access the hacking program and run it, but it didn’t seem to be working.

Maddie sounded frustrated over the comm, “Ugh, if I was there I could…it’s just, not the sort of thing I can explain to you.  There’s security measures on the panel itself that keep me from accessing the program much less breaking it.”

I stared at the wires holding the panel, “So you need a bypass?  What if I could short it out and get you direct access?”

Maddie thought for a minute, “Well…if you could do that, then yeah, it would work.  The hacking routine would run and crack the door program.  Can you, can you do that?”

I shrugged and cracked my knuckles, “We’re gonna find out.”

I look through the wires, made an assessment, and tentatively cut a pair of the wires.  I waited for something awful to happen.  When nothing did, I got back to work.  I pulled the deck off of the panel.  I took a spare wire from my kit and twisted a contact onto the end of it and connected that to the deck.  I took the other end of the wire, stripped off some of the jacket and twisted the wires to one of the pair I had severed.  I crossed my fingers and ran the program.

The wire sparked and snapped at me and smoked a little.  The screen on the deck flickered.  I heard some servos turning, and then the door opened jerkily.  I waved the smoked away and gave Knox a thumbs up, “Success!”

He smirked.

“Yes!” Maddie cried over the comm.

I wiped some imaginary sweat off my brow and spoke into the comm, “Okay, get the ship ready.  We’re gonna clean out this lab and head back to you.”

Maddie said, “Aye, aye, captain.  We’ll be all ready and waiting when you get back.”

I motioned to Knox, and he swept into the lab.

This room didn’t have the big apparatus that the main lab had.  It just had one wall that was lined with machinery.  I didn’t know what the stuff did, but I assume some important fuel-related science stuff.  There was a workstation with a computer at it to one side of the room, and on the other a large, metal chute of some kind.  The thing was bigger me and a little wider, made of some kind of thick, reinforced metal.  The whole thing was bright yellow and red with black hazard stripes on it.  It was marked as the, “Emergency Disposal Unit.”  Must have been where this whole mess started. 

A track led from the machinery on the back wall over to the chute.  I guess when shit went bad, they ejected the sample out the side and ran it down the track to dump it in the chute.  There was an empty frame with handles on it sitting right next to it.

Knox walked over to check it out, and I joined him.  He set down his rifle and lifted up the lid.  He grunted and strained to lift it.  We peered down inside.

It was dark inside the chute.  I shone my flashlight down there, but I still couldn’t see anything but darkness.  It just dropped down a long way into the dark.  I could hear a distant rumbling down there, and heat wafted up the shaft.  I backed away.

Knox closed it again.

I wiped real sweat off my brow and headed over to the computer.  I had a bad feeling as soon as I saw it.  This was a high end model.  I crossed my fingers and inserted Maddie’s datacard.  Nothing happened.  I was afraid of that, “Shit.”

Knox came over, “No good?”

I slumped and shook my head, “No, Maddie’s little trick didn’t work.  Maybe…maybe if we had her down here she could crack it.”

Knox furrowed his brow, “I’m not bringing her down here, no way.”  He looked over the computer and traced it back to its power supply.  He walked around and started disconnecting it.

I leaned over the side of the desk, “What are you doing?”

Knox grunted and pulled the computer out, “Fuck it.  We’ll bring the computer to her…or just give it to the Anthean directly.  Let his people deal with it.  Let’s just get out of here.”

I shrugged, “Sounds good to me.”

Knox hoisted the computer up into his arms.

That’s when the lights went out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

It was dark except for a few lights from the machinery behind us for a few seconds.  Then red, emergency lighting came on in the lab and out in the hall.

Knox and I shared a look.  “Ah, shit,” he said.

A figure appeared at the door of the lab.  It carried something in its hands that was sparking.

I could barely make out who it was.  It was Yasmin, burns completely covering the human half of her face, and almost all of her hair gone.  She held a case of fuel to her chest, and she’d rigged it up with some sort of electrical device…a trigger!

She staggered into the room.  She was wheezing heavily, “Stop… hunh …stop…you… hunh …miiiine…it’s…miiiine…”

I stood there frozen and didn’t know what to say or do.

That didn’t stop Knox.  He dropped the computer to the floor, turned, and grabbed me.  He dragged me to the chute and flung it open, “Inside!  Inside!”

Yasmin let out a gurgling scream and tossed her improvised bomb at us.

I half-climbed and was half-thrown down the shaft.  I tumbled and scraped down the sides of the shaft, awkwardly bracing myself against the sides.  It was all darkness and confusion.

I was pushed down from above and desperately struggled not to plunge to my death.

There was a loud explosion, I saw a light flash somewhere above me.  Everything shook violently.  I strained and braced myself against the walls holding on for dear life.  I don’t know how long I did that.  My ears were ringing, I heard a low, whining groan, and slowly realized it was me making the noise.

I dimly heard Knox’s voice above me, “All right?  Are you all right?  Maahu!  Maahu!”

He was shaking me.  I tried to shift position in the shaft and dropped down suddenly.  My back and belt scraped down the wall and brought me to a stop.

Knox was shouting, “Maahu, are you there!?  Maahu, answer me!”

I choked when I tried to speak and had to clear my throat a few times, “Yeah.  Yeah!  I’m here!”

I heard Knox’s voice, but I couldn’t tell how far he was between the echo in the shaft and my own partial deafness, “Take my hand, climb up to me!”

I was afraid to move.  My legs were locked in position.  My back hurt, and it was burning.  The metal of the shaft was hot, and it was becoming unbearable.  Sweat formed on my head.  I reached up feeling along the shaft.  The metal was hot above me too.  I braced my arms against the shaft to take the tension off my legs.  I tentatively tried to push up.  My feet slid along the metal.  My muscles were fatiguing, “I’m slipping!”

Knox called down to me, “Hold on!”

I heard him screeching along the metal shaft above me.  I strained to lift myself and reached my hand above blindly in the darkness.  I couldn’t hold on.  I wasn’t strong enough.  Shit.  Shit.  Shit.  My body was shaking and sliding downward.

Something brushed my fingertips.  I grabbed for it and came loose in the shaft.  My life flashed before my eyes plunging in the darkness, but I jerked to stop.  I didn’t know what was happening, but I felt a tight grip on my wrist and heard groaning above me.  I was moving upwards.

I fumbled around and braced my legs on the shaft again to push off and assist with the ascent.  I heard Knox groaning and scraping above me.  I heard a banging sound, and a sliver of light pierced the shaft blinding me.

“Hang on,” Knox called down to me, “Brace yourself, I need to let go.”

I scrambled into place, “Okay, just a second.  Okay.  Okay, I’m good.”

Knox let go and I heard a creak above me.  Light flooded down into the shaft.  I could see red and orange light above me.  I smelled smoke.

Knox was just above me climbing out of the shaft.  He disappeared with a thud.  A few seconds later, he reappeared at the top of the shaft leaning down towards me, “Give me your hand.”

He was out of reach, and I had to shimmy and strain to get close enough to him, but he got a hold of me, and hauled me out into the room.

The room was a flaming wreckage.  Everything was destroyed: the machinery, the computer, the desk, Knox’s rifle.  Smoke filled the room, and I was gagging on it.  It stung my eyes.

Knox dragged me forward towards the door, “Come on.”

We stepped through the threshold to cleaner air.  Across the hall from the lab I saw what was left of Yasmin.  Half a metal skull leered out at me, the metal shining under the red lights.  One metal arm lay to the side of a charred and blackened heap that was once a human being.  There was nothing recognizably human there anymore.

Knox walked past her without a second glance and entered the storage room. 

I followed after him into the darkness.  I fumbled for my flashlight, but it was gone.

Knox felt along the walls, “The lift is still here, but I don’t think it has power.”

I walked over to him, peering up at the ceiling where dull, red light came from the opening above, “Do you think we can reach it?”

Knox shook his head, “No, we can go around to…move!”  Knox flinched suddenly and shoved me towards the door.

There was a loud explosion above us, and I was knocked to the floor.  I tried to stand, and a second explosion rocked us sending me to the floor again.

Knox dragged me to me feet as he staggered past me.

Chunks of the ceiling were falling down on us, and a series of explosions went off in sequence above us.  The samples!

Knox got us into the hallway before we were knocked to the ground again.

Everything was shaking.  Explosions continued to go off above us, and the whole place was coming apart.

I looked around desperately, “The stairs?”

Knox shook his head and tried to stand, “No good.  Too dangerous.”  He staggered to the wall of the lab and leaned heavily against it.  He pointed down the hallway, “Must be another way; the way she came.”

I look instinctively to Yasmin’s charred remains.

Knox waved me forward.

I staggered to my feet and followed him down the hallway.  One of the doors hung open, and we headed out through it into a long hallway.  My comlink started going off.  I answered it in a stupor as I tried to follow Knox, “Hello?”

Maddie came through on the other end, “Tane!  Tane, what’s going on?  My sensors lit up!  Major heat spike and seismic activity!  What did you do?”

I shook my head to clear it, “Get the ship here now!  Just fly it here and pick us up!”

Maddie was shocked, “What, me?  Fly the ship?  Um, yeah, I guess-“

I screamed into the comm, “Maddie, do it now!”

Maddie replied, “All right, all right, I’m on my way.”

I nodded and followed after Knox.

He turned to me as he staggered forward, “Door up ahead, we’re almost there.”

I nodded and pushed my sore muscles forward.

We reached a doorway that led to stairs upward.  I clung to the railing and pulled myself up them as the whole world shook around us.

The stairs led us up to a power control station.  Huge transformers and regulators surrounded us, but the room was a mess.  Someone, Yasmin, had been living here. 

I barely glanced at the makeshift bedding and personal effects surrounding us and looked for an exit.  I spotted a door and stumbled towards it.

Knox grabbed me, “Wait!”

I gave him a look of confusion.

He stared at me, “You can’t go out there!”

The heat.  Of course.  We were trapped.  My shoulders slumped, and I sank to the ground.

Knox stared out the little window in the door.  He waved me over, “I can see the main building.  We’re in the small building due south of it.”

I stared out the window hopelessly.  The main building was a good fifty feet or more away from us, and all the exterior doors were locked down anyway.  Everything was shaking violently, and explosions were still going off in the distance.  I turned my back to the wall and slid down it, “We’re fucked.”

Knox continued to stare out the window.  He looked around the room and then back to the window.  He walked around the room looking through Yasmin’s possessions, “Maybe there’s something here we can salvage to get out of here.  She’s got to have some kind of gear in here.”

I idly looked around myself and spotted something.  I crawled over and yanked it out.  It was a heat-shielding blanket.

Knox came over and grabbed it from me, “Yeah, exactly.  Maybe I can use this and reach the building.”

I shook my head, “It’s locked down, remember?”

Knox frowned, “Then maybe around the building to the garage.  If I sprint, I might be able to make it.”

I shook my head again and gave him a weak smile, “You’re not that perfect.  You’d never make it.  And again, the doors would be locked.”

Knox punched the wall, “Dammit, there’s got to be a way!  If we could just get to our exos, we could get out of here.”

I had a thought.  I sat up, “What if…what if we got the suits to come to us?”

Knox gave me a puzzled look.

I frantically pulled out my comlink, “Maahu to Butler, Maahu to Butler, come in!”

His mechanical voice came through the comm, “Butler receiving you.  How can I be of assistance?”

My face was one big smile, “Butler, you magnificent bastard!  Is the suit powered up and ready to go?”

Butler replied, “The F063c is online and operational as per your instructions.”

I cackled into the comm, “Yes! Butler I need you bring the suit to me.  Lock in on my coordinates, we’re just south of the main building.”

There was a pause, then Butler replied, “My function is to assist in the operation of the F063c, not pilot it.”

I scowled, “You’re gonna assist me by piloting the damn thing over here.  You control every function in that suit don’t you?”

Butler replied, “That is correct.  All functions are at my disposal and can be accessed using voice commands.”

I yelled into the comm, “Then hear my voice commanding you to bring the suit here.  Grab the other suit and drag it over here to our coordinates or we’re gonna die.”

There was another pause before Butler came back, “Carrying out instructions.  Please wait.”

I flashed Knox a smile.

A few minutes later, Butler came back on the comm, “The bay doors are currently closed and do not respond to my commands to open them.”

The main facility was engulfed in flames across from us.  I could see the ground outside tearing itself apart venting super-heated gas.  The molten river of metal was roiling beside us.

I spoke into the comm between gritted teeth, “Butler, I want you to listen very closely, you break down that door, cut it open, tear it apart, do whatever you have to do to get here now!”

“Carrying out instructions.  Please wait.”

We waited and heard a loud crash.  The garage was too far away to see, but the sound came from that direction.  Then I saw the beautiful site of _Tin Can_ and _Slab_ coming around the building. 

_Tin Can_ was carrying _Slab_ over its shoulder and hovering above the ground using its thrusters.

I banged against the window, “Over here!  Over here, Butler!  We’re in here!”

I heard his voice over the comm, “I have spotted you, and I am en route.  Please wait.”

I watched _Tin Can_ getting closer and closer…and not slowing down.  I turned to Knox and pushed him away, “Shit, get back, get back!”

We both ducked for cover at the far side of the room behind a pile of crates.

_Tin Can_ crashed through the door jamming the cockpit into the room.  Heat leaked in around it.

Knox threw the heat blanket over us.

I yelled into the comm, “Pop the canopy!  Pop the canopy!”

I heard the cockpit open, and I scrambled out from under the blanket and across the room.  It was already getting dangerously hot in there, and I quickly jammed myself into the cockpit and pulled the canopy closed, “Butler, I’m gonna fucking kiss you when we get out of here.”  I switched on the PA on the suit and spoke to Knox, “Knox, hang on.  Stay under the blanket.  I’m gonna put _Slab_ in position, and I’ll give you the okay.”

I fumbled around in the suit and wrenched it out of the wall.  I left a huge hole in it, and I watched the deadly heat seeping into it.  I had to hurry and save Knox.  I grabbed _Slab_ from the ground and tried to manipulate the cockpit into position in front of me.  I lifted the suit and pushed it awkwardly towards the hole.  There were huge gaps all around it, but it was the best I could do.  I called out on the PA, “Knox, it’s in position, go, go!”

Knox leapt up with the blanket wrapped around him like a cloak.  One hand held it shut, and I watched it blistering in the heat.  He kept his head down and scrambled to the suit.  His body was literally steaming as he banged at the controls to open the cockpit.  He tumbled inside of it and sealed the cockpit with some of the blanket still sticking out of it.

I called over to him on the comms, “Knox!  Knox!  Are you okay?”

He groaned back, “I’ll live.  Burned pretty bad.  Can’t use one arm, but I’ll make it.”

We needed to get out of there and get him medical care.  I switched the comms to contact the _Raven_ , “Maddie, where the hell are you?  We need to get out of here immediately!”

Maddie came back, “Almost there, but there’s nowhere to land!”

I got my suit moving and answered back, “Just fly as close to the building as you can and pop open the cargo the ramp, we’ll take it from there.”

“Right,” she said back.

Knox was struggling to get his suit moving.

I walked over to him and propped it up, “Come on, we gotta go.”  I limped with him out towards the front of the building.  I saw flames had stretched across more than half of it, and the ceiling and walls were collapsing on the southern end near the storage area.  So much for the bunker.

The ground beneath us tore apart.  It heaved upward and tore into glowing rents.  I staggered and dropped Knox.  I struggled to stay upright.

Butler fired the thrusters to compensate, and I was able to stand.

I patted the console, “Thanks again, buddy.”  I helped Knox to stand again.  I could see him fading behind the cockpit; he was barely conscious.  Hang on, Knox.

Maddie shouted over the comm, “Incoming!”

I could see lights through the smoke and haze and spraying metal.  I limped towards them dragging _Slab_.  On my left I could see the garage.  A huge, _Tin Can_ -sized hole was torn through the bay door.  Through it, I could see the hovertruck.  Shit, the samples!  The data!  One million credits!

The _Raven_ was hovering above, wobbling back and forth as Maddie tried to hold it steady.  The cargo ramp was open and waiting for us.

I pushed _Slab_ towards it.  I looked through the garage door.  It wasn’t far.  It wasn’t far at all.  I could maybe drag the truck out of there or push it or even carry it.  We didn’t have to lose everything.  I started walking towards it.

_Slab_ took a few stumbling steps towards the ship and toppled over.

I stopped.  I look to the garage and back to _Slab_.

_Slab_ was getting up uneasily and trying to move forward.

I took one step towards the garage.  I could see the truck waiting right there.  One box even.  One case was all I needed.

_Slab_ went down again.

I let out a groan of frustration and rushed to _Slab’s_ side.  Knox was passed out at the controls.  I got my suit’s arms underneath his, got a tight grip and fired my thrusters.  They strained under our combined weight and the force of gravity as I struggled to get us high enough to reach the cargo ramp.

The ramp weaved and dipped and rose in front of us.  I pushed the throttle to maximum and tried to compensate, “Come on, come on, dammit.”

The ramp scraped across Slab.

I yelled into the comm, “Hold it steady, Maddie, we’re almost there!”

She called back frantically, “I’m trying!”

_Slab’s_ cockpit touched the ramp.  It scraped back and forth on it.

I pushed us forward a little more.

One of the tool arms swung out from the array and hooked around the cargo ramp piston.

I pulled and dragged us onto the ramp, “Goddamn you, Butler, you are beautiful.”  I called into the comm, “Close it up, we’re on.”

I pushed _Slab_ forward as the ramp closed up.  I looked back to the garage.  I saw the floor split open.  One side of the truck dipped forward.  I saw the first explosion as the ramp sealed shut.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

I stood in the corporate headquarters of Universal Enterprises Corporation.  There was almost more vegetation inside the place than outside, but the Antheans were nature lovers, so that was no surprise.  Went through about fifteen minutes worth of security checks, then they left me in the holding area for almost two hours.  Some Anthean goddess that was beauty top to toe finally came to get me and bring me in to meet the big man.

Just as I imagined it, Jareth Newton’s office was at the top of the world with a view of all of it.  I took a minute and looked around at it.  Then the man himself greeted me.

He was dressed in another perfectly tailored suit, open wide at the chest with embroidered lapels and cuffs.  It clung tight to his slender frame.  He wore a layered shirt of some kind of shimmering fabric, and his hair was luxuriously coiffed.  He was all smiles again and sprung out of his chair with his hand extended, “Tane!  So wonderful to see you again.”  His slender hand had a firm grip, and he shook my rough hand tightly.  He gestured, “Please, take a seat.”

I slumped down in the chair across from his desk.

He took his seat delicately and folded his hands in front of him, leaning on the desk, “I understand you had some trouble on your endeavor.”

I nodded, “We did.”  I looked out the windows wrapping around the office, “We did indeed.  Lots of it.  Got my partner hospitalized over it.”

Newton gave a small frown, “I’m so sorry to hear it, but I’m glad to see you’re in one piece.  You were successful then?  You have something for me?”  His frown turned into an eager smile.

I pulled out the somewhat charred datacard and tossed it on his desk.

He looked down at it like it was some strange kind of slug or insect.  He looked up at me, “Is this it?”  He looked around the desk at my feet, behind me, and then around the room, “Nothing else?”

I sighed, “That’s it.  It’s all the data we could pull out of the computers before the place exploded and nearly killed us all.”

Newton looked at the card.  He reached out tentatively and picked it up.  He turned it over in his hand.  He raised an eyebrow dubiously.

I gave a short nod, “It’s still good, just a little worse for wear, like the rest of us.”

He set the card down and steepled his hands.  He stared down at it, then looked up to me, “Oh, no, Tane, this isn’t what I asked for.  This won’t do at all.”

I glared at him, “I had more.  Had your samples.  Your explosive samples.  Had notes and computers too.  But some maniac attacked us and nearly brought the place down on our heads.  We had to leave it behind and barely escaped with our lives.  Like I said, my man is still in hospital.”

Newton lowered his hands into his lap.  He pursed his lips and took a deep breath in through his nose.  He looked up at me with a calm expression, “We had a deal, Tane, and this doesn’t meet the terms of our deal.”

I sat up in my chair, “I expect to be paid for my efforts.”

Newton scowled and looked at me from the corner of his eye, “I’ve already paid money upfront for this fruitless venture.”

“Five percent,” I said.

Newton shook his head, “I’m sorry?”

“You put up five percent,” I said and tapped on his desk with on finger, “And I put my life and the lives of my team in danger for it.  Not to mention the expenses and damages incurred.”  I pointed at the card, “That is not useless.  That is all the data in the galaxy that exists on this technology, and you have it, and you alone.  As promised.”

Newton grimaced and bobbed his head from side to side, “That’s true, but not exactly what we discussed.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, “I know that, but I expect to be compensated.”  I locked eyes with him.

He took a breath and then looked away.  He tapped a few keys and studied the monitor in front of him.  He threw his hands up, folded them I his lap, and turned to me, “One-hundred and fifty thousand.  Wired to your account.  Twenty percent.  For this.”  He indicated the card, “It’s fair.”  He locked eyes with me.

I ground my jaw together, furrowed my brow, and gave a short nod.  I stood and extended my hand.

He eyed me seriously as he came to his feet and took it.

I shook and stared him right in his glowing eyes, “I expect the next job to be less dangerous.”

He held my gaze and my hand, “And I expect it to be successful…or it will be the last one.”

I nodded, shook his hand, and left.  I had a kid off on Rima III.

**THE END**


End file.
